Mary died peacefully from melanoma at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham at 00.30 hours on Tuesday 25 January 2022.

Mary touched many lives for the good and her family and many friends and close colleagues are in deep mourning at her early passing.

Mary qualified as a nurse in 1981 and she completed renal nurse training in 1982 at Guy’s hospital. Mary then moved to Birmingham and was central, with her life-long friend and mentor Claire Marke (now Claire Wood), to the rapid growth of clinical renal services in the city in the 1980s. Working with Dwomoa (Jo) Adu and Jonathan Michael she expanded the continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) service at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB), treating patients with end stage renal failure. This service became one of the largest in the world with over 350 patients receiving CAPD at peak, extending care for end stage renal failure to include older patients and those with other long-term conditions, patients that until then would not have received dialysis treatment and would therefore have died from renal failure. Throughout her career Mary was a passionate advocate for patients and their families.

In 1988 Mary completed a diploma in Professional Studies in Nursing at the City of Birmingham Polytechnic.

In addition to CAPD Mary led across a range of clinical renal services at QEHB including renal transplantation and as a ward sister. She was an outstanding nurse leader, developing and mentoring a generation of nurses that have provided care for thousands of patients in Birmingham and elsewhere.

In 1991 Mary moved to Edinburgh to join Paresh Jobanputra and they married in July 1992. Mary studied at Edinburgh University and was awarded the degree of Master of Science (with distinction) in November 1992.

Their sons Louis and Harry were born in 1993 and 1995 respectively and the family moved to Birmingham in December 1996. Shortly afterwards, Mary took a break from nursing and worked as a gardener, Mary loved her own garden. She was busy, during the last weeks of her life, planning her vegetable garden for the coming season. In 2008, Mary and her great friend Deborah Taylor created an orchard at Moseley Tennis club. Mary enjoyed tennis and was a pillar of the Monday night socials at the club. She also organised a popular and highly successful coaching programme for children at the tennis club including fund raising for talented players. Mary had many other interests including sustainable farming, literature and politics.

In 2002 Mary returned to nursing and in 2006 (with Lesley Fifer) re-established the nascent renal nursing research team at QEHB. Mary led the development of the team so that by 2013 it had become the largest recruiter of patients into clinical trials in QEHB and the largest recruiting renal service in the UK. The team became the centre of a clinical research network, working with multiple principle and chief investigators, academic departments and embedding research in clinical services. In addition to her leadership Mary had skill sets that ranged from establishing and running research projects, obtaining funding, writing and developing research proposals, supervising research students, and mentoring multi-professional team and medical researchers. Mary was central to the development of the renal group in the Centre for Patient Outcome Research (CPROR) at the University of Birmingham, working with Mel Calvert and Derek Kyte, and even in her final illness was continuing to support this major programme. At her heart was fierce advocacy for the needs of patients with an unremitting focus on excellence.

Mary worked tirelessly to support colleagues, irrespective of whether that was in a clinical, operational, or research role. She was a positive force for change and her profound influence will endure as her approach is now embedded in many researchers and clinicians to the benefit of patients with kidney disease and other medical conditions.

During her final illness Mary was with Paresh, Louis, Harry, and her best friend Jane. Our thoughts are with them and all those who knew and loved Mary.

Donations in Mary's memory can be made to

Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust: www.bbcwildlife.org.uk/donate

Thrive (using gardening to change lives) www.thrive.org.uk/get-involve…

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