Caroline Richmond (1941-2023) was a British medical journalist and writer. [1] [2]
Richmond was born in London to Cedric Ivor Smith, an Anglo-Indian civil servant, and Kathleen (née Meeson), a secretary. [3]
Richmond struggled academically and was expelled from Richmond County School for Girls due to disciplinary issues. [4] At age 16, Richmond began working as a laboratory assistant while studying for A-levels at night school. [4] She pursued a degree in zoology at Sir John Cass College in London (now part of London Metropolitan University), which was interrupted by a nervous breakdown. [4] Despite these challenges, she completed her zoology degree at Portsmouth Technical College and earned a master's degree in animal physiology from Birkbeck College, London. [3] She began a PhD in neuroscience at University College London but did not complete it due to discrepancies in experimental results with a colleague. [4]
Richmond began her career by freelancing for the New Scientist and later worked for a start-up publishing company in Lancaster. [4]
In the late 1980s, Richmond became the UK correspondent for the Canadian Medical Association Journal and contributed to television programs and books. [4] She also created a satirical leaflet in 1988 under the pseudonym DRAB — The Dye-Related Allergies Bureau, a subsidiary of the Food Additives Research Team (FART). [3]
Richmond was involved in the ethical debates surrounding medical consent to treatment. [4] In 1992, she underwent surgery to remove the lining of her womb, but the surgeon, Ian Ferguson, removed her ovaries and womb without her consent. [4] She complained to the General Medical Council, and although the surgeon was cleared of misconduct, the case led to changes in guidelines for informed patient consent. [4]
Richmond co-authored the book Insulin Murders (2007) with Vincent Marks, a professor of biochemistry at Surrey University. [3]
In November 2022, Richmond was made an honorary member of the Medical Journalists' Association for her work with HealthSense. [4] Despite suffering from normal pressure hydrocephalus, she continued to lobby on various health issues. [4] She successfully persuaded the Royal Horticultural Society to rename a rose in her garden from "Mortimer Sackler" to "Mary Delany." [4]