Alison Mary Brind: liver disease specialist and ultra marathon runner

In the months before she died Alison Brind self-published a book called I Never Stop, detailing her many sporting exploits. In the introduction she wrote, “I never stop and will only stop when I can do nothing.”

As a mantra, “I never stop” summed up Brind’s attitude to life perfectly. The consultant hepatologist spent barely any time at home—instead she was to be found either pounding up and down the wards as a hepatologist at the Royal Stoke University Hospital or pounding the streets, fells, or mountains on one of her many long distance runs.

When she was appointed consultant gastroenterologist in 1997 she was the first liver specialist the gastroenterology unit at Stoke had recruited. And she was one of just four consultants in a unit that covered a population of more than half a million people.

Brind quickly established herself, treating patients with …