Mary Gillies

bmj;378/aug12_11/o1988/FAF1faElizabeth Mary Gunn’s parents worked as teachers in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, and moved to New Zealand and subsequently south west England, when she and her sister were children. Mary had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis as a child and young adult, and this played a part in leading her into medicine as a career. She was keenly interested in paediatrics but decided on general practice. She spent three years working with her husband as a district medical officer in rural Malawi in the 1980s, then worked as a GP in Galloway and the Scottish Borders. She combined work in general practice and homeopathy for many years. Her clinical work was curtailed by secondary breast cancer, with which she lived for 12 years.Mary loved travelling and continued this throughout her life. Her illness and deep concerns about suffering in her patients and the world led her to explore Tibetan Buddhism over many…
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