Obituary: Judith Spenceley MBE - Energetic doctor who made a great contribution to Scottish women’s health

JUDITH Spenceley was a woman defined by a quiet determination to get things done, a perennial interest in others and her ever-ready dazzling smile.

Always upbeat, she was vivacious, incessantly positive and inclusive – traits that endeared her to patients as much as to family and friends and which fuelled an ethos of fairness and interest in areas of health that could often be neglected.

She was a family planning doctor in the very early days of the Brook Clinic, worked in the sexually transmitted diseases clinic and helped to set up the Highland breast screening service, becoming the region’s first breast physician and receiving an MBE for services to women’s health.

The daughter of dental surgeon, Douglas Campbell, and his wife Winifred, she was born in Edinburgh and moved to West Linton where she attended primary school before going to St Denis School in Edinburgh in 1953. Her education continued at George Watson’s Ladies College until she went to Edinburgh University in 1961.

After graduating MB ChB in 1967 she followed her pre-registration stint with a year in obstetrics and gynaecology at the capital’s Simpson Maternity Memorial Pavilion, gaining a diploma in obstetrics and an enduring interest in women’s health.

It was in 1970 that she became involved in the Brook Clinic in Edinburgh as a family planning doctor and was one of the first people to staff the clinic. She spent five years there and then moved north to Inverness with her husband – whom she had met as a student at the Yorkshire Society Ball – and two young sons. Their daughter was born in the Highland capital.

Spenceley worked both in family planning clinics in Inverness for Highland Health Board and part-time in general practice clinics at Kingsmills Medical Practice.

As well as being an active member of the Scottish Family Planning Association, for a decade from the mid-1980s she worked in the sexually transmitted disease clinic at Raigmore Hospital and was an occupational health physician there.

One of her greatest contributions to the health of women in the Highlands and Islands was her involvement in the establishment of the breast screening service which entailed her visiting every GP surgery in the region to promote the service.

Outwith her professional duties she was a lay member of the School Inspection Service in the Highlands and contributed to her community through the board of her local school’s parent teacher association.

Although she retired from practising medicine in 2003 she became a medical representative within the Disability Tribunal Service the following year and remained in post until her death.

Her many other interests included curling with the 15 Club and Highland Curling Club, camping and caravanning, both in winter and summer, and skiing.

She was also president of the Inverness Wine Appreciation Society and an active supporter of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

After her family took up sailing she worked tirelessly to support the volunteer crews of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in Inverness and the North Kessock branch.

She was always a fan of the sea and became an active sailor too, enjoying trips with her husband to Scotland’s west coast, across to Norway and St Kilda and also sailing in New Zealand and Australia with family.

Earlier this year her contribution as an enthusiastic, extremely capable and long-term fundraiser for the RNLI was recognised with the presentation of the institution’s gold badge.

A woman who always wanted to do things properly but who worked away quietly without fuss or fanfare, she spent her last days at the Highland Hospice where she continued to inspire with her upbeat attitude and concern for others until the last.

“She was the most positive person we’ve ever met,” said her family, “and an inspiration for many to do better.”

She is survived by her husband Howard, children Neil, Christopher and Heather, nine grandchildren and her sister Patricia. ALISON SHAW