Dr Helen Kennedy

General Practitioner Born: September 2, 1927; Died: March 7, 2015

DR HELEN Kennedy, who has died aged 87, was a general practitioner in Glasgow and during the 1960s was a doctor with the East African Flying doctor service which was closely involved in the diphtheria, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and tuberculosis mass immunisation programmes and the eventually successful World Health Organisation smallpox eradication project.

She was born in Gourock in 1927 and grew up in Westerton. Her parents were both teachers in Glasgow. She attended Jordanhill secondary school and was in the tennis and hockey first teams.

At the end of the war, aged 17, she was in the volunteer nursing corps and this sowed the seeds of her interest in a medical career. She was an academic and graduated in medicine at Glasgow University in 1950, marrying Stewart Kennedy (also a doctor) in 1953. Much of her early training was at the Belvidere Hospital in Glasgow.

However she always felt her best years were out in Kenya in the early 1960s. The family had moved to Nairobi in 1964 and stayed there for three years. Stewart (now a consultant pathologist as Glasgow Royal Infirmary) had become Clinical Sub Dean of the new medical school at University College, Nairobi.

This new medical school arose from the efforts of senior Glasgow doctors of all specialities who spent a couple of years in Nairobi – the so called “Glasgow – Nairobi link 1965-67”. First year teaching commenced in 1967 with an intake of 25 Kenyan students.

Dr Kennedy worked as a GP at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi and with the East African Flying doctor service was based at Wilson airport, Nairobi (still very much operational and now known as the African Medical and Research Foundation –AMREF Health Africa). She worked for the flying and mobile units involved in mass immunisation and the smallpox eradication programme. Management of these diseases greatly reduced high infant mortality rates.

There were many challenges, not least keeping the vaccines cool. She often flew with Dr Anne Spoerry, one of the first female pilot/doctors and travelled widely throughout Kenya caring for nomadic tribespeople from the Masai, Samburu, Turkana and other tribes in bush clinics. Much emphasis was placed on the train- ing and education of local Kenyan health care workers. She always harked back to these days and had several visits back to Kenya.

On return to Glasgow, after further training in children’s health, she took up a partnership in general practice at 1264 Dumbarton Road, Partick. She cared for the people of Scotstoun, Whiteinch and Partick until her retiral in 1996, being senior partner from 1985. She was a trainer of new general practitioners for many years.

Her academic pursuits continued and she proudly achieved a Bachelor of Arts with the Open University in 1985.

Her brother was Colin McArdle, now deceased, Professor of Surgery.

She is survived by three children and four grandchildren.