Anne Merriman: “forceful and cussed” doctor who launched palliative to international locations throughout Africa

When 4 yr previous Anne Merriman noticed photos of sick kids in Africa she introduced, “I’m going to Africa to look after the poorly kids.” This brash, single mindedness by no means left her. She spent greater than 40 years in Africa, founding the pioneering Hospice Africa Uganda (HAU) and revolutionising finish of life care in lots of international locations throughout the continent. HAU has since educated greater than 10 000 healthcare professionals in palliative care

HAU supplies conventional, holistic, wraparound care with a distinction. The Merriman mannequin developed from a easy recipe for affordable oral morphine that she developed with the Singapore Nationwide College Hospital chief pharmacist. Merriman declared manufacture of morphine as “simpler than baking a cake.”

Elements included meals colouring, a preservative, and a pound of morphine powder. Initially, weaker doses have been dyed inexperienced, stronger ones pink and blue. A bottle value round $2 (£1.47; €1.75) to make. Efficiently launched in Singapore in 1985, it was initially concocted in a kitchen sink, however is now blended in industrial vats.

Merriman moved from Singapore to grow to be the primary medical director of a hospice initiative in Kenya, however left after three years, worn down by forms. She was a lone white girl in a world dominated by highly effective males and there was widespread concern in regards to the potential misuse of prescribed opioid medicine, particularly exterior hospitals.

She …