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The rest of my career went like this as in my following CV:

Research posts Non-academic work  Teaching Experience   

 [ PAUL'S SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS ] [ Paul's PhD thesis in Immunology ]  

Research Posts held 

Here I worked on mechanism of induction of tolerance to artificial antigens in B-lymphocytes, both in vivo and in vitro. Part of this work formed the basis of my MSc research project (see publications 1 & 2 below).  I left this post to take up a place at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne as a PhD student.    Following the award of my PhD, I became:

 In this job I worked on the modulation of the immune response to synthetic antigens by the parasitic nematode, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis with particular attention to the effects on different antibody classes, functional assays of the effects of cimetidine in parasitic infection and the role of anti - idiotypic antibodies in parasite - induced immunosuppression.

 I also carried out work on the effect of organochlorine contamination on humoral immune responses of rainbow trout and Canadian salmon. On returning to the UK in 1983 I took the post of :

 This involved investigating modulation of the antibody response to tetanus toxoid and pneumovax vaccines in humans with deficient immune systems for a variety of reasons. These included work with heart and heart/lung transplant recipients who were receiving the anti-rejection drug cyclosporin A, congenitally immunodeficient patients and a congenitally asplenic woman. I also had responsibility for investigating cases of selective antibody deficiency within the Cambridge Health Authority area.

My most recent work in medical research has been in: 

My work has involved ELISA assays of IgE and IgG4 antibodies to Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and hookworms. Further work which could be done, if funding becomes available, would be to measure antibodies of other isotypes, correlate antibody and parasitological data with measurements of cytokine levels and identify major antigens involved in responses by Western blotting.

My non-academic work:

In 1989, I decided to take a break from my career and I moved to Nottingham when my partner, Maggi (now my wife) became severely disabled and I virtually became her full-time carer. At that point my concern about her health left me unable to concentrate on academic pursuits. In the intervening years, I have had various part-time and temporary jobs (work in organic farming and running a wholefood shop) and also training in disability awareness, something which is obviously of great personal interest to me.

 I have been a member of the British Society for Immunology since 1975 (with a few years break during the time when I was not working in research) and of the British Society for Parasitology since March 1997.

In addition to nutritional information an supply of nutritional supplements, I'm presently also running "The Helping Hand" which provides assistance and advice, and finds accessible accomodation for disabled people holidaying in South Tenerife.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

 During the course of my postdoctoral work in Canada, I participated in teaching a course in advanced immunology to graduate students. I have also recently supervised an MSc student and taught a course of immunology lectures and practicals for first year students at Nottingham University in 1997 & 1999.       

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That stage in her life came to an end in June 1950 when she caught Polio and spent 15 months in hospital. The bout of polio was severe and left her paralysed from the neck down. Her immune system finally managed to defeat the polio virus before her lungs gave out (she was too small for an iron lung and her father was told to expect her death.)

A year's intensive boot-camp like physiotherapy got her sitting up unaided and then standing and walking (and falling over) with two elbow crutches and two full leg braces. In the meantime, her parents had moved to one of post-war Britain's first Council Estates, and when Maggi was discharged it was to a strange house peopled by strangers who (to their distress) she called "Lady" and "Man". It wasn't surprising that she her parents were unknown to her - she had seen them for about an hour a week between the ages of 23months and 3½ years.

Time passed. School and hospital alternated rhythmically until her mid-teens. Her education was put on hold until after she reached her 16th birthday and left the profoundly limiting environment of a special school for "delicate" children. (An early tentative diagnosis of brain injury had been clung to by the school authorities and she was placed with what we now no doubt call "educationally challenged" children...) 

However, intensive courses at Queen Elizabeth Training College and Thurrock Technical College - in such unlikely subjects as book-keeping, British Constitution, Russian and typing - led to Essex and then Nottingham University and a BA(Hons) in Politics and an MA in Social Work.

By her early 20s she had largely put "disability" behind her, having only a leg brace, a cane and yearly bronchitis to remind her of her run-in with polio.

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At Essex University she was part of the egalitarian group of students and staff who formed the first ever "Niteline" telephone counselling and support service. (Although they, with due regard to orthography, spelt it "Nightline") Arranging for training from the Samaritans and undergoing the training herself was part of her involvement in setting up the project, and so Social Work and social work management seemed and obvious choice of profession. 

After working as a social work assistant in south London, she moved to Nottingham University for her MA and professional social work qualification. After qualification in 1975, she worked with Nottinghamshire Social Services and then with a national Charity then known as "The Spastics Society" and now renamed "Scope". Management training with the Open University followed and she joined the management team.

By the mid-eighties, management wasn't enough, so Maggi started her own counselling and personal skills training and education practice ("People Skills", offering courses such as time and stress management and anti-discriminatory practice as well) and also began training in psychotherapy to develop the skills she offered.

First person now: "Polio was still lingering, though, and, like a time bomb, it exploded in 1990, shattering both my career and my career plans - and a good deal of my social life. (I've written a bit about this in Social Worker's Tale) However, not everything in the '90s was bad - in the midst of all the returning ill-health and my disbelief at my new oh-so-circumscribed lifestyle - I met, lived with, and then married, Paul.

Telling people how my increase in health had come about was natural (particularly other "old polios", but the lessons learnt and the knowledge gained crosses an extremely wide range of people, we've discovered, with  younger non-disabled people putting a high value on preventative, protective health and well-being measures) and the "ability collective" became formally constituted as "Collective Ability". And, having taught myself to design websites, what could be more natural than to build this website with Paul? 

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