Caroline Richmond obituary – Guardian
In 1987 the medical journalist Caroline Richmond, who has died historical 82, used to be worried at the barrage of scream in response to an article in the Contemporary Scientist asserting meals components were mostly harmless. Strange to ascertain what else folks may well likely likely keep in mind used to be execrable, and keen on wearing brilliant colours, she wrote a tongue-in-cheek article for the British Clinical Journal, “Fabric dyes: are they in the patron’s curiosity?”
It urged wearing brightly colored dresses can also wish a unfold of effects alongside with increasing most cancers probability and retaining serious psychiatric complications by making folks too elated. The article used to be supposedly issued by the Dye Associated Hypersensitive reactions Bureau (DRAB), a subsidiary of the Meals Additives Compare Team (FART), which Richmond assumed would alert readers to the silly story.
Nonetheless, the charity Action Against Allergic reaction ran the fragment in its e-newsletter in all seriousness and readers contacted Richmond looking for to portion their experiences of brilliant-dresses hypersensitive reaction indicators.
It skittish Richmond and pleased her the UK wanted a physique to call out successfully being misinformation – esteem the Nationwide Council Against Correctly being Fraud that existed in the US. In 1988 she circulated a proposal, “Why Britain needs a counter-quackery organisation”, to esteem-minded colleagues, and on 1 November 1988 the inaugural assembly of the Marketing campaign Against Correctly being Fraud happened in the Outmoded Bell pub in Quick Boulevard, London. Seemingly the most critical different participants incorporated the most cancers specialist Professor Michael Baum, the hypoglycaemia expert Professor Vincent Marks and the broadcaster Nick Ross.
In its early days the organisation – which modified its name to HealthWatch (1990) and then to HealthSense (2022) – campaigned towards untested most cancers “therapies”, but hastily widened its scope to scrutinise extinct medicine. Richmond used to be on the committee for some years.
Her skill as a medical journalist made her adept at demystifying proof and striking it in layman’s phrases. A elaborate character, whose favourite magazine used to be the Skeptic, she used to be beneficiant, idealistic and drawn to controversy. She may well likely likely likely be tricky. Ross talked about: “I wouldn’t want to get on the execrable side of Caroline. If I were a quack pushing capsules to the skittish sick, she’d be in there esteem a bulldog.”
In 1989 a friend, Patrick Collard, died and Richmond wrote his obituary. It took her profession in a brand fresh route, and he or she modified into a outstanding obituarist of medical doctors and scientists for the BMJ, the Unbiased and the Guardian for several decades. Richard Smith, editor of the BMJ from 1991 to 2004, described Richmond’s writing as “crisp and to the level with vibrant phrases”.
When she needed to reveal the physiologist William Keatinge, as an instance, assembly a endure wakening from hibernation, she summed up the problem with a Shakespeare-inspired line: “Exit Keatinge, pursued by a endure.” Describing the process, Richmond talked about “It’s esteem portrait painting. Most frequently the creator in actuality captures the topic, which is a wonderful feeling.”
Some of her favourite issues incorporated the surgeon Norman Shumway, whom she later recalled as “the actual modest hero of coronary heart transplantation” and Sir Douglas Murky, applauding him “for exposing successfully being inequalities and making an try to eradicate them”.
In offering a rounded report of anyone’s life, Richmond used to be no longer intelligent to gloss over shortcomings or steer clear of making judgments. In 2003, she wrote an obituary for the BMJ of the founder of Scotia Pharmaceuticals, David Horrobin. She had worked for him and may well likely likely vouch for his charm and intelligence, but talked about his overview ethics were dubious and, because the promoter of evening primrose oil (the clear up for which she talked about there used to be no disease) “he can also point out to be most attention-grabbing snake oil salesman of his age”.
The obituary resulted in thunderous letters to the BMJ for months and a criticism to the Press Complaints Price. Smith, as BMJ editor, apologised for inflicting offence to Horrobin’s household, but defended the fragment, asserting, “Rather about a what our readers favor is what I call glorified loss of life notices, but we favor serious journalistic items that uncover experiences and accomplish make a judgment on a character.”
She used to be born Caroline Smith in Leicester. Her father, Cedric, used to be Anglo-Indian and worked in the civil service, and her mother, Kathleen (nee Meeson), used to be a secretary. She had an elder brother, Clive. It used to be no longer a really easy childhood: she did no longer get on with her father or fit in at college. The household moved to Kensington, London, after the 2d world battle and Caroline went to Richmond county college for women, from the attach she used to be expelled, she talked about, for being unpunctual, never having the coolest uniform and making the different women chortle. But she chanced on science books in the library and talked about: “Facts and science modified into my haven.”
Venerable 16, Caroline got a laboratory assistant job at a trainer practicing college. She studied for A-ranges at night time college and then a zoology level at Sir John Cass College in London (now section of London Metropolitan College). Her studies were interrupted by a fearful breakdown but nonetheless she got her BSc and embarked on a neuroscience PhD at College College London. Seemingly the most critical outcomes of her experiments in contrast badly with a colleague’s (who she used to make certain used to be cheating) and he or she did no longer originate the PhD. As a replace, she started freelancing for the Contemporary Scientist. She also worked for Horrobin in his birth-up publishing company in Lancaster for several years.
In the late 1980s she modified into the UK correspondent for the Canadian Clinical Affiliation Journal and contributed to a BBC programme on the historical previous of the NHS and a Granada World in Action programme about rogue medical doctors exploiting folks that believed they’d hypersensitive reaction indicators. She also contributed to several books and with Marks co-wrote Insulin Murders (2007).
In 1976, Caroline had married Peter Richmond, but it no doubt used to be no longer a elated relationship and they divorced two years later, despite the indisputable truth that she saved her married surname. Through Guardian Soulmates she met Jim Edgar in 2010, when she used to be 68, and they married in 2015. Other than for work, she talked about her partnership with Jim used to be one of the critical three issues that gave her mountainous happiness (the others were her cats Thisbe and Horace and her membership of the Chelsea Arts Club).
Richmond lived with unwell-successfully being for a protracted time. In 1992, she had surgical operation to remove the lining of the womb and came spherical to search out the surgeon Ian Fergusson had removed her ovaries and womb, concerned he had chanced on a cancerous lump. She used to be skittish, relating to it as “a castration”, and complained to the Total Clinical Council. The surgeon used to be cleared of misconduct but it no doubt used to be a high-profile case and, consequently, the BMA strengthened their tips for ensuring patients gave informed consent to procedures.
In November last year Richmond used to be made an honorary member of the Clinical Journalists’ Affiliation for her work with HealthSense. Very unwell from frequent stress hydrocephalus, she nonetheless persevered to foyer on successfully being and other points she cared about. Sad that a rose in her garden used to be called “Mortimer Sackler” (a key participant in the Purdue Pharma scandal) she persuaded the RHS to drop the name and it modified into “Mary Delany”, mighty to her satisfaction.
Richmond is survived by Jim and her stepchildren Lisa and Ian.
