Read more about the Facing the World charity

Martin Kelly was an extremely talented and dedicated plastic surgeon of international fame who died suddenly at the age of 43. He was found collapsed in the doorway of his home in Fulham, West London, by a friend, the day after the tenth anniversary of his wedding to the actress Natascha McElhone.

Kelly did pioneering work in facial reconstruction and he was recognised as a world leader in the field. Although his expertise included all aspects of aesthetic facial, breast and body contouring surgery, his specialist interest was in facial plastic surgery.

Kelly was born Martin Hirigoyen in London in 1965 and brought up in Paris. His father, Bernard Hirigoyen, was a French industrialist from a Basque background, and his mother, Diane Kelly, was a member of a well-known Irish family.

His French father and Irish mother separated when he was 17, and Martin accompanied his mother and four sisters to London, later adopting her maiden name, Kelly. He was educated in Paris and at Winchester College in Hampshire, and then undertook his medical studies at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, London, graduating in 1989. He did his surgical training in Oxford and London, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS) in 1993.

Kelly was led into plastic surgery by his experience working as a volunteer for the non-governmental medical organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières. Seeing children with terrible burns and deformities that could not be treated locally convinced him to go into specialised charity work. He spent some time reconstructing noses in Afghanistan after the Taleban fell. The Taleban had the habit of cutting off the noses of people thought to be liars.

In 1999, after training in plastic surgery in Oxford and London, he passed the Plastic Surgery Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was awarded a two-year travelling scholarship to do research in microsurgery and facial reconstruction at the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, as a Fellow and surgical resident in the Division of Plastic Surgery.

His thesis won him a doctorate of medicine from the University of London in 1997.

Kelly became fascinated with all aspects of facial reconstructive and aesthetic surgery (sometimes incorrectly referred to as cosmetic surgery) and trained in craniofacial surgery (which deals with congenital and acquired facial deformities) at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. He then spent three years abroad, one of them on a fellowship in orbito-craniofacial surgery at Hospital Foch, Paris, working with senior American and French surgeons and gaining much experience in aesthetic surgery.

He was subsequently appointed a consultant plastic surgeon at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, and at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, where he reconstructed the faces of patients after cancer surgery.

Kelly was a co-founder, with Norman Waterhouse, of a charitable organisation called Facing the World , which was set up to treat poor children from around the world disfigured with severe facial deformities. More than 30 children from various countries have benefited from treatment under the charity.

Newspaper stories often focused on Kelly’s work with celebrities and tended to ignore the serious work he did in the National Health Service and his charitable work. Kelly was a full member of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons and the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, and an associate member of the European Society of Craniofacial Surgery. He published more than 30 papers in plastic surgery.

A first-class surgeon with an excellent bedside manner, Kelly was a very compassionate man, but hard-headed and practical, with a considerable amount of energy and an extraordinary dedication to healing. He was a perfectionist but also a modest man with a great wit and well-developed sense of humour. His sudden death at such an early age was a shock to those who knew him.

Kelly was also active outside his profession. He was an all-round person with a talent for painting and music. A keen sportsman, he enjoyed playing tennis, horse riding and skiing.

His wife and their two sons survive him. His wife is pregnant with their third child.

Martin Kelly, plastic surgeon, was born on May 7, 1965. He died of a heart attack on May 20, 2008, aged 43