One of Canberra's true gentlemen, ''Mayor of Dickson'' Allan McFarlane, has died suddenly at the age of 76 years.
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The intellectually disabled man's long and often painful wait for an urgent operation helped spark an inquiry into elective surgery waiting lists.
In June last year, The Canberra Times revealed that that Mr McFarlane had been waiting more than a year for prostate cancer surgery.
Mr McFarlane and his guardian Fay Arrold had been told by doctors that the surgery should have been performed within a fortnight.
The case led to an auditor-general's inquiry which found some elective surgery patients had been downgraded to less urgent waiting categories without reasons being given. Mr McFarlane received his surgery a few weeks after his plight was revealed and he responded well to treatment.
He died suddenly in aged-care accommodation earlier this month and was buried beside his father in Cooma yesterday.
Mr McFarlane moved to Canberra in 1978 after his father died so that Miss Arrold, a family friend, could care for him. He volunteered at the St Vincent de Paul shop in Dickson for 21 years.
His habit of dropping in on Dickson shopkeepers earned him the nickname the ''Mayor of Dickson''.
Mr McFarlane moved from Miss Arrold's home into aged-care accommodation in 2009.
In a death notice placed in yesterday's Canberra Times, Miss Arrold thanked Mr McFarlane for the happy times they had shared together.
''I will miss you but your big smile will never be forgotten,'' she wrote.