Mary Wasson:MARY WASSON, who has died in a road crash in Co Tyrone, was a quiet woman who became a forceful campaigner on behalf of her general practitioner husband when he was suspended from his practice in Belfast after blowing the whistle on irregularities involving another GP.
She was born in Magherafelt in 1959, the eldest of five children to Gerard Campbell, a clerk of works, and his wife Madeleine (née O'Donnell). She was educated at St Mary's Grammar School in the town, then became a nurse in Ballymena's Waveney Hospital.
In the Waveney she met a young doctor called Ciaran Wasson, and they married. Initially, it seemed life would be smooth progress. The couple set up home in Belfast, and Ciaran became a partner in the large GP practice of Dr Damien Beirne in west Belfast.
Then Wasson formally raised concerns about his partner's conduct. This led to Beirne being fined £5,000 at a Department of Health appeals tribunal, following an investigation of prescribing practices and role of practice staff. Information uncovered during the investigation led to Beirne being given an 18-month suspended sentence for a £94,000 pension fraud. He was never suspended from practice. After raising the concerns, Wasson set up practice on his own in west Belfast's Whiterock Health Centre. His wife became his practice manager. The practice covered one of the most disadvantaged parts of west Belfast, near one of the largest Traveller halting sites. In 2000, he was suspended from the practice, initially without pay. As practice manager, his wife also lost her job.
She threw herself into campaigning on his behalf, even though she was suffering from Crohn's disease and had two children.
In 2002, the General Medical Council upheld two of the 12 charges against Dr Wasson. Queen's University psychiatry lecturer Ciaran Mulholland was a defence witness.
"Some of the stuff which was found against him, if you trawled through any practice's records, you could probably find it," said Mulholland. "Wasson had to defend himself against every charge. The prosecution only had to prove one. The single biggest sin found against him was poor record keeping. In mitigation, he was a single-handed practice, in an area of great social need, with limited resources."
The family faced further difficulties as Wasson was unable to find work as a doctor in the North, and had to move to England for five years. A couple of years ago he returned to work in Belfast, and the family had been putting their experiences behind them.
Mary Wasson is survived by her husband, children Peter and Olivia, mother Madeleine, sister Bernie (Kelly), and brothers Gerard, Paul and Mark.
Mary Wasson: born July 8th, 1959; died October 4th, 2009