Ivan May loses battle with kidney cancer

Philanthropist, marketer and environmentalist Dr Ivan May died this week at the age of 63.

Having spent his last Christmas weakened by kidney cancer, May succumbed to the disease on Friday afternoon at the Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Parktown, Johannesburg.

Friend and publicist Theo Coggin said the loss of May, who he described as a man of huge integrity, would be keenly felt. May was, among other things, CEO of the Constitution Hill Trust, president of the University of the Witwatersrand's convocation and an honorary lecturer at the university's Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics.

His philanthropic pursuits and conservationist interests saw him become the chairman of the Salvation Army and he also founded the Green Trust.

"It was part of Ivan to be friendly and caring. He took people in and he had good friends around him," said Coggin. "He was a great man and a colourful character." -