Christian Kwame Yeboah Kudzi

Christian Kwame Yeboah Kudzi was born in the early 1930s in Hohoe, a small village within the Volta region of Ghana. He was the youngest of five children living a simple life.

His parents were ambitious, believing education was the way forward. Due to his exceptional academic ability he sat and passed the common entrance examination to one of the top secondary schools in Ghana, situated at Cape Coast, called Adisadel College which was founded 1910 by the Church of England.

From Kumasi University and part-time work in a branch of Kingsway Chemists, he subsequently gained a scholarship to continue his studies in the UK, considering a career as a pharmacist.

On arrival in the UK, following his discovery of chiropody/podiatry as a relatively new emerging profession, he had a change of mind. He applied and attended Salford Technical College as it was known, then relocated to London with his wife and two daughters.

With the help of Mr Peter Read, the long-standing Head, he gained a place at The Chelsea School of Chiropody (formerly part of Chelsea Polytechnic) situated at 250 Kings Road, Chelsea. He graduated as a State Registered Chiropodist in 1969, adding the letters SRCh and MChS after his name.

He later had two further children, a third daughter and a son.

He was well known and respected within the profession in the era of Ian Anderson, Gwen French, Michael Hobday and as previously mentioned Peter Read.

As an avid scholar he later studied botanical medicine, successfully becoming a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists in 1977.

From that time, he travelled back and forth to his birthplace Ghana to establish a clinic incorporating the two  disciplines, podiatry and herbal medicine, while working alongside other medical colleagues. He was simply known as the ‘Foot Doctor’.

Christian Kwame Yeboah Kudzi was a genuine pioneer in introducing, developing and providing chiropody treatments to the people of his Ghanaian community. He was passionate about making a difference to those who had little or no access to foot health professionals and their specific expertise.

Back in the UK as an energetic professional he practised within the NHS, and also purchased and managed several private chiropody practices including Halfway Street Sidcup, Brownhill Road Catford, Charlotte Street Fitzrovia and finally Longbridge Road Barking, until his early retirement due to a diagnosis of a frontal lobe meningioma in 2007.

He never forgot his beginnings in Ghana and his community as well as cherishing his life in the UK, thankful for the opportunities it provided him and his family.