Michael Woods Haslett was born at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington and spent his early years in London. He was evacuated to Montreal in 1940 and returned to the UK in 1944. He won a scholarship to Winchester College and studied medicine at King's College Cambridge. He completed his clinical years at Middlesex Hospital and qualified in 1957. He did housework at Middlesex and Ipswich Hospitals and obstetrics and gynecology at Manchester Royal Infirmary. He was in general practice in Poulton-le-Fylde at Lockwood Surgery from 1959 until his retirement in 1994. He met Isobel in 1953 while on holiday. He and Isobel shared a love of the mountains, spending time at the family cottage in the Lake District and completing Wainwright's and Wainwright's retreats accompanied by a line of Labradors.