Anna Donald
BMJ 2009; 338 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b436 (Published 04 February 2009) Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b436
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She was a kind, loving, energizing friend, a brilliant scholar, and a
deeply committed revolutionary for change. In 2005, we discussed her
desire to retreat to a Walden Pond of her own to write a book chronicling
her discoveries through "evidology" -- little did we or she know then that
her life itself would become her opus, causing all of us to discover anew
the meaning (and indeed the limitations) of science and medicine.
By way of small correction to this record, it is also important to
note (as all 200+ of us did daily during our time as her fellow student)
that Anna graduated in 1996 from the Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard with a Masters in Public Policy. She could always be found at the
intersection of practical and intellectual discourse and was eager to
understand the way in which her learnings from the health field could be
broadened into all disciplines -- economics, development, corporate
finance, and not surprisingly, even art and music. She was not just a
thought partner, but a "spirit" partner to all of us troubled by the
world's growing inequities between classes, races, the educated and those
without education. She challenged us constantly to think bigger, grow
stronger and push beyond long-accepted presumptions. And when we fell
short, she was always there with her wonderful sparkling eyes, easy
trilling laugh and bone-crushing hugs to reassure and inspire us once
more.
She will be missed not just by her friends but also by the world that
depended so much on her incessant, and always important, questioning.
I know I am not alone in missing her daily even now.
Competing interests:
Student with Anna at the Kennedy School of Government
Competing interests: No competing interests
I am still shocked by Anna's death, and still possessed with the
sense of
eeriness that I had when I first started to read her blog, and when I re-
read
some of it a couple of days ago. Richard Smith's and Muir Gray's obituary
was
wonderful, and painted the Anna we all remember and would want to
remember.
I first met Anna after she had won the Rhodes Scholarship for New
South
Wales for 1989 - my wife and I attended a farewell dinner in her honour.
We
were very taken by this young and vibrant woman who had already done so
much, and who was about to depart for Oxford on what is often a life-
changing experience. Somehow we knew that she would achieve great things,
and also have a lot of fun.
Unexpectedly we soon found ourselves living in London for a few
years. We
still have this memory of being invited by Anna to an afternoon party on
an
amazing summer's day in 1990 or 1991. We drove up the M40 to her place -
I think it was in Norham Gardens or nearby. All manner of people drifted
in
and out of the party. As everyone would expect, she made us really
welcome
including our baby boy. Marvellous summer days in the UK are like rare
jewels to be remembered, but it was the whole day that was wonderful, and
it
was because of Anna.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Thank you for letting us know! Anna will be remembered by all who got
to know her through her writings. I would definitely like to see "From the
other side" in book form--it should probably be essential reading for all
physicians. I cannot imagine a more fitting tribute to this brave woman.
Competing interests:
I occasionally responded to Anna's blog entries.
Competing interests: No competing interests
The many people who are missing Anna are beginning to think what we
can do to remember her.
One thing will be an event in London, where we can both mourn Anna
but also celebrate her life and our joy in having known her.
We should surely also gather her blogs (and perhaps some other
material) into a book.
And those who are missing Anna’s words might like to read a long and
excellent article about her published in Good Weekend, a supplement to the
Sydney Morning Herald. You can access this at:
http://www.bazian.com/pdfs/AnnaDonald_GoodWeekendProfile_082008.pdf
Others will have other ideas.
Competing interests:
I'm a friend of Anna's and coauthor of her BMJ obituary.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Thank you to Richard Smith and Muir Gray for their moving obituary of
Dr Anna Donald.
I had come across the Anna Donald blog, having been alerted to it by Dr
Smith. Mystified, I clicked on line and entered the world of Dr Anna
Donald and found myself awed, inspired and humbled.
Anna was only in her early 40s when she died and yet had achieved
more than most of us would if granted several life times! She combined a
rigorous scientific mind with a powerful sense for the sacred, which
underpins all life.
Whilst living in the shadow of death with advanced cancer she still
managed to write beautifully teasing out the very stuff of life, and in so
doing helping the rest of us gain profound insights into the world of
living one day at a time, in that “uncomfortable, ambivalent space of
knowing-not-knowing which is fascinating, humbling and maddening”.
Her experiences touch each one of us deeply because we too are human
beings living with the knowledge that we are mortal, yet seldom allowing
ourselves to think about this taboo subject, let alone share our innermost
thoughts or fears about dying with others. Anna says: “more life is just
more- and how much do you need? - in this horrifically banal age of eat
till you drop because there is nothing else to do”. The art it seems is
making the most of what you have, “making the meaning in the now, for the
now” and realising that life until old age is a privilege not a right.
She also shared what it’s like to be a patient undergoing
chemotherapy and radiotherapy “lit up like a Christmas tree on the scans”.
She referred to the “kindness and competence” of health professionals who
have the power to transform the patient experience so that the unbearable
becomes tolerable. I am sure there are lessons here for the commissioners
of health care. So much emphasis is placed on throughput of patients and
“bed management” targets that all too often the patient’s experiences and
journey through the health care system are overlooked.
Anna explored spirituality and the mind-body connection. She
described meditation as opening her up to “a kind of joyful consciousness
beyond thoughts and body which, interestingly, did not seem to be body-
beholden”, adding wryly this is somewhat comforting when you’re facing
imminent death “when the lease on your body runs out”!
Anna used her amazing scientific brain to explore metaphysics or the
world beyond the material. To Anna “all things are sacred if you choose to
allow yourself to be plugged in”. She also reflected upon the nature of
science “that wonderful, slow tortoise” which evolves slowly by making
sense of what has gone before and only occasionally making revolutionary
leaps in understanding. Reading her words made me realise that so much in
life that is a fundamental truth is in fact a paradox, such as life and
death, the material world and the spiritual. I too have always been
fascinated by the meeting of science with the sacred, and Anna makes the
two appear not as polarities, but as complimentary, maybe two sides of the
same coin?
I urge all of you to go on line and enter into Anna’s world for
yourselves. You will be enriched and transformed by the experience and
maybe learn to look up at the stars now and then, and count your
blessings.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
I have been a somewhat erratic and irregular, albeit interested
follower of Anna Donald's blogs on BMJ and especially loved the way in
which she could make the reader feel a part of her own life and thoughts.
I especially remember her post after a serious adverse reaction due to
chemotherapy overdose. The way in which she brought humor and her
scientific musings into a devastating incident that might have caused
infinitely more debilitation and inaction in most other people inspired
wonder in me.
I am sure she will remain etched in the memory of her peers as a
stellar individual.
And I guess I voice the thought of her many admirers (blogworld and
otherwise) when I pray that her soul rests in peace.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: Anna Donald
I just came across an old trove of communiques from Anna and was moved to reread some of her obituaries and came upon this comments section which I had missed, or forgotten. I still miss Anna a lot. I still mourn how the world could have been changed with her vision. I could still use one of her great chats. Anna had a way of making you want to be a better version of yourself. It's good to summon that picture up every now and again. Hope I see her again some day.
Competing interests: No competing interests