My wife, Marion Ekobprince, who passed away at the age of 74, was a scientist who spent her career studying the neuromuscular junction, where nerves and muscle fibers meet. Working in laboratories in New York, Newcastle and Glasgow, she has developed tissue culture techniques to study the progression of various neuromuscular diseases that can cause severe pain, muscle atrophy and numbness.
Born in Heanor, Derbyshire, to Anne (née Ford), a post office assistant, and John Echob, a delivery driver, Marion attended Spondon Park Grammar School, Derby, where she was an excellent fencer. , was captain of the netball team. And the head girl. In 1968 she attended the University of Bristol to study microbiology and in her first year she won the British University Women's Fencing Championship (Foil).
After graduating, Marion won a Kennedy Scholarship to study at Harvard University in the United States for a year. While there, she became a New England fencing champion.
After returning to Japan, he began a PhD at Cambridge University. Based at Addenbrooke's Hospital, she investigated how the viruses that cause measles and Dawson's disease interact in neuronal cell cultures.
She earned her doctorate in 1975 and went on to become a researcher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, before moving across the city to Mount Sinai Hospital.
Returning to the UK in 1978, she joined the muscular dystrophy laboratory under neurologist John Walton at Newcastle General Hospital, conducting special research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a severe condition that primarily affects boys. Ta.
In 1988 she moved to the University of Glasgow to study the use of herpesviruses as vectors to deliver drugs to cell nuclei using tissue culture techniques. In 1994 she took up the position of Registrar Assistant at Newcastle University Medical School, from which she retired in 1999.
Marion married Simon Johnston in 1973 but divorced in 1982. We married her in 1985 and we spent many wonderful vacations together camping in the mountains of Washington and Oregon and roaming all over Europe.
Marion's interests were always related to activities. In addition to being an avid walker, she loved skiing, squash, and cycling. But her main passion was for the gardens she designed, created, and worked on. Her approach to gardening was like science: keen observation, experimentation, and meticulous record-keeping.
She leaves me and her twin brother David.
