Countrygirl
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I am writing to share the sad news that my friend Dr Annie Macintyre, Patron and past medical advisor to the ME Association, died during the night.
I have known Annie since 1987, when my friend Dr Richard Sykes and I began the Bristol ME Association Support group. Annie lived in Bristol having just moved from Bath and she made contact with the group. However, it wasn’t until the late ‘90s that we became close friends when she took me to her home after giving me a medical assessment as I was too severely ill to care for myself. From then on we have maintained a continuous friendship, phoning each other most days.
I used to refer patients to her when they phoned me for advice about ME if they needed a diagnosis or other help which only a doctor could provide. We used to joke that we ran an underground medical system.
Annie, as many of you know, wrote one of the first books for patients on ME and it proved very popular. She was hoping to update it, but her life over the past few years was taken up with travelling to such places as St Helena, where she had been the island’s doctor, to visit familiar haunts. Before she became ill, she had been a ship’s doctor and then specialised in eye diseases and spent time practicing abroad.
In recent years, she had a camper van which she loved to take around the country and which she continued to drive even when she became very ill over the past year. She also on a number of occasions visited the Irish ME groups of which she was a patron. Annie especially loved visiting the island of Lundy off the North Devon coast with friends and, being a hardened Scot, enjoyed the Spartan………and very windy……life there.
Annie suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis and a couple of years ago she developed pulmonary fibrosis, a complication of the condition. In April she was offered Rituximab, but, unfortunately, she had a severe reaction to it and it initiated a very rapid decline.
The last months have been grim, as Annie bravely struggled with her increasing breathlessness. During much of this time, she remained in her flat, which is not far from me, with her two cats.
I have spent a lot of the time over the past months sitting beside her bed or speaking with her a few times a day on the phone. Last Friday, while we were chatting, she experienced an abrupt and serious deterioration from which she never recovered. The next few days were very challenging, but she became more peaceful by Thursday. I was planning to sit with her today, but last night Annie quietly slipped away.
I will greatly miss her.
You might like to see one of her videos.
(Notice Annie's expression when she is interviewing the consultant. There is a story about that 'gentleman'!!
I have known Annie since 1987, when my friend Dr Richard Sykes and I began the Bristol ME Association Support group. Annie lived in Bristol having just moved from Bath and she made contact with the group. However, it wasn’t until the late ‘90s that we became close friends when she took me to her home after giving me a medical assessment as I was too severely ill to care for myself. From then on we have maintained a continuous friendship, phoning each other most days.
I used to refer patients to her when they phoned me for advice about ME if they needed a diagnosis or other help which only a doctor could provide. We used to joke that we ran an underground medical system.
Annie, as many of you know, wrote one of the first books for patients on ME and it proved very popular. She was hoping to update it, but her life over the past few years was taken up with travelling to such places as St Helena, where she had been the island’s doctor, to visit familiar haunts. Before she became ill, she had been a ship’s doctor and then specialised in eye diseases and spent time practicing abroad.
In recent years, she had a camper van which she loved to take around the country and which she continued to drive even when she became very ill over the past year. She also on a number of occasions visited the Irish ME groups of which she was a patron. Annie especially loved visiting the island of Lundy off the North Devon coast with friends and, being a hardened Scot, enjoyed the Spartan………and very windy……life there.
Annie suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis and a couple of years ago she developed pulmonary fibrosis, a complication of the condition. In April she was offered Rituximab, but, unfortunately, she had a severe reaction to it and it initiated a very rapid decline.
The last months have been grim, as Annie bravely struggled with her increasing breathlessness. During much of this time, she remained in her flat, which is not far from me, with her two cats.
I have spent a lot of the time over the past months sitting beside her bed or speaking with her a few times a day on the phone. Last Friday, while we were chatting, she experienced an abrupt and serious deterioration from which she never recovered. The next few days were very challenging, but she became more peaceful by Thursday. I was planning to sit with her today, but last night Annie quietly slipped away.
I will greatly miss her.
You might like to see one of her videos.
(Notice Annie's expression when she is interviewing the consultant. There is a story about that 'gentleman'!!
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