Constance Mary Hunter
BMJ 2021; 373 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1351 (Published 28 May 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;373:n1351
- Frances Hunter
Constance Mary Hunter (née Wilton) was raised in Heywood, Lancashire, and studied medicine at Leeds University. She became a GP in Chapeltown, Leeds, in 1961 and spent most of her working life there.
Constance was committed to the principles of the NHS. She was an active member of a number of medical professionals led organisations formed to defend GP practices and wider health services, including the Small Practices Association and Leeds Hospitals Alert. She also supported and advised Paul Truswell on health matters during his time as MP for Leeds.
Constance went on fact finding trips to Cuba and the Soviet Union, raising funds and collecting equipment to send for medical aid to Cuba. In addition, she helped to found the first rural diabetes clinic in Jamaica and visited it for the grand opening. Finding it wasn’t quite finished she pitched in to clean and paint it alongside the local volunteers.
She inspired others to join the health profession, opening her doors to university and A level students to share her passion for being a local GP. Her son, Stephen, became an acupuncturist and her daughter, Frances, now works on the covid Test and Trace frontline.
Constance retired in 2014 and unfortunately mobility issues prevented her from undertaking some of the trips she had planned to visit her many friends and family. She developed vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s, and it was these conditions that lead to her death three years after diagnosis.
Many of her patients became lifelong friends and she will be sorely missed in Chapeltown and the wider Caribbean community, as well as by her children—Frances, Stephen, and David—and their families.
GP Chapeltown, Leeds (b 1934; q Leeds 1958), died from vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease on 3 April 2021