PEOPLE living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) will pay tribute later this year to the woman who, for decades, championed their cause.
Dr Elizabeth Dowsett, a leading ME doctor and researcher for more than 60 years, died in Cambridge in June, aged 91.
As her funeral was for family only, former patients and colleagues will pay tribute to her at a special meeting at the Walsingham Road Community Centre, Colchester, on Sunday October 28, starting 2pm.
Vivienne Mills, meeting organiser and chairman of Colchester ME Support Group, knew Dr Dowsett for many years and made a point of keeping in touch during her latter years.
“I got on so well with Betty,” she said.” I never knew either of my grandparents and, in a way, she became the grandmother I never had.”
Dr Dowsett, a former Shoeburyness resident, was co-founder of the National ME Centre at Harold Wood, Romford.
She was a consultant microbiologist and physician who cut her teeth in the world of ME long before the illness became known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the 1980's.
She saw more than 3,000 ME patients in her career, including 400 children, collaborated with research pioneers and found time to set up special clinics at three Essex hospitals.
With Jane Colby – now executive director of the Ingatestone-based Young ME Sufferers’ Trust – she co-authored a major five-year survey of 366,000 schoolchildren demonstrating that the illness was the UK's commonest cause of long-term absence from school.
Dr Dowsett's daughter, Frances Johnson, is expected to be at the tribute meeting. Those wishing to attend or speak are asked to contact Vivienne Mills at vivienne.mills@ntlworld com