MS sufferer dies after care battle (From Wiltshire Times)

MS sufferer dies after care battle

4:05pm Friday 19th January 2007 in Melksham By Charley Morgan

A MULTIPLE sclerosis sufferer who won the support of the Prime Minister's wife in a battle to stop an authority cutting her care, has died.

Mary McGee, 61, and her husband James, 62, of Holbrook Vale, Melksham, fought Wiltshire County Council for months to ensure she maintained respite care and home help.

Their fight was bolstered by Cherie Blair, who wrote to them in August under her professional name, Cherie Booth QC, saying she would fight their case for them.

In the end no cuts were made to Mrs McGee's care and the couple believed it was the support of Mrs Blair that helped them.

Yesterday, Mr McGee received a letter from Mrs Blair. In it, she said: "I was so sorry to hear of Mary's death, I know she was a very special lady. You are in my thoughts and prayers."

Mr McGee said: "That will be a real comfort to me and the family. Mary would have loved that because Cherie had taken the time to write to her."

Mrs Blair's secretary also wrote to him inviting him to come to 10 Downing Street.

Mrs McGee was taken ill on January 7 and rushed to the Royal United Hospital, in Bath. She died from pneumonia on Friday with her family at her bedside.

Mr McGee said worrying about whether his wife's care would be cut or if she would have to go into a home was very stressful at the time.

He said: "After Cherie got involved everything stopped - we never had any contact with a social worker again."

Mrs McGee was rushed to hospital with heart failure in September and while she was there Mrs Blair sent her flowers and a note.

The couple learned her care package would not be cut soon after she came out of hospital.

Mr McGee said: "In September I maintained it was the stress that made her ill - it was worrying about everything."

The couple's daughter, Alison McKeown, 40, said: "It was worrying to think that she might have had to move out into a home."

Since Mrs McGee died, the family have received phone calls and visits from many of the carers who looked after her and became very attached.

Their other daughter Carolyn Knott, 35, said: "She was such a gentle and nice person with genuine values."

Mrs McGee was born in November 1945 in Keevil and raised in Steeple Ashton.

She went to the Victoria Commercial School, Trowbridge and went on to be a secretary and PA at County Hall and then Lloyds Bank.

She met her husband at a dance in Trowbridge called Top 20 and they were married in 1965 in Steeple Ashton and had two daughters, Alison and Carolyn.

She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1986 and by 1993 was confined to a wheelchair. Her husband was her main carer throughout her illness.

Mrs McGee's funeral is today at 11am at West Wiltshire Crematorium, Semington.

The family have requested family flowers only, but donations can be made in memory of Mrs McGee to Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, care of D J Bewley Funeral Directors in Melksham.