Hyman was undergoing chemotherapy when he launched a real estate investment trust that owns GP surgeries and other healthcare buildings that it leases back to the NHS. That was back in the mid-1990s and it wasn’t long before he was cancer-free and had taken Primary Health Properties onto the stock market. Over the years the former accountant has evolved the business into a construction company and facilities management operation that also creates and maintains purpose-built surgeries. Today, Hyman is chairman and there are nearly 500 sites in the UK portfolio and more than 20 in Ireland. The shares now value the business at more than £1.2bn.