Alison McCartney

Alison Cawsey

Alison Cawsey passed away in June 2009. She was a remarkable person and her death is a profound professional and personal loss. Born in 1963, Alison grew up in the south of England and, from 1981 to 1984, studied Natural Sciences at Jesus College Cambridge. During this period she met her life partner Richard. Alison always excelled academically but not always in the sporting arena; however, at ...

Wccmt Case Study – Alison Ritchie

Margaret McCartney: Bad language.

Whether it’s related to remnants of paternalism or to the universal rise of the public relations industry, healthcare is littered with terminology that inadvertently or otherwise misleads, by concealing or distorting crucial information. From lazy language to deliberate doublespeak, some of my most loathed examples are below. Don’t we need a clear-out of this bad language? Words that mask auste...

Margaret McCartney: Perfect people.

“I’ve literally moulded myself into Ivan’s fantasy woman,” writes Victoria, partner to the author of the Convince Her to Get Bigger Breasts manual. “I think it’s wrong for women not to pander to their men. If they feel like their husbands prefer blondes, I think you should be blonde. If you like bigger breasts, why not?” Victoria had surgery to increase her breasts from size 26D to 26K. Who are...

Margaret McCartney: Christmas presents.

With Christmas come the presents, but since graduation they’ve caused me disquiet. They arrived, carefully and thoughtfully wrapped, some with notes and cards, some with just my name. In accepting gifts from patients, I was disturbed. I thought, firstly, that they were being given under false pretences. I wasn’t doing any more than the average doctor, maybe less: I’d made mistakes; had missed t...