Tribute to late Dr Heather Shamlaye

Tribute to late Dr Heather Shamlaye

28-March-2016
Dr Heather Shamlaye, the wife of well known local doctor Conrad Shamlaye, passed away on March 16, 2016 very peacefully at her home at Bel Ombre.
Dr Heather Shamlaye, nee Thompson, was born in a small village in India on October 24, 1956 where her parents were working as missionary doctors.
Her mother was Scottish and her father was English, and they worked for the Christian missionary society and ran a small rural hospital for 35 years.
She was born soon after her parents moved in India so she grew up and went to school in India and then moved to the UK for further studies later on where she met her husband Dr Conrad Shamlaye in 1975, who was then also studying medicine at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.
In 1981 they got married in Seychelles and conceived two daughters, the eldest Cathriona born in 1983 and the youngest Julie born in 1985.
Dr Shamlaye specialised in family planning and worked for the Ministry of Health for most of her working life in the family planning services and she also set up the youth health services which was at Mont Fleuri at the time.
“She worked closely with all the nurses and all the doctors and she also worked with people in the community so she was quite well known in her field and she used to do a lot of radio and TV programmes as well,” her husband said.
Dr Shamlaye also said that her wife was an active member of the Soroptimist which is an association of women professionals and business women where she took part in different fund raising activities.
“Heather was also interested in other things such as community development so she took part in many activities with the church. She was also very keen on training people particularly nurse,” he said.
At one time Dr Shamlaye was the director of programmes in the Ministry of Health were she led a team of professionals from maternal health, child health, family planning, school health and vaccination programmes.
In 2005 she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease which progressed rather rapidly according to her husband.
Dr Shamlaye said it was very much of a physical illness where she was not able to walk or talk but her mind was very active and she really enjoyed life.
“She was still very alert and her mental abilities were just as good and memory functioning well. Although she could not express things you could see that she was enjoying life and we travelled a lot between here and the UK. Even when she was ill we went to New Zealand and she always enjoyed that, and enjoyed being with family and friends,” her husband said.
She also got to spend special time with her granddaughter Alizé from New Zealand who was born in November last year.
“I think a lot of people who knew Heather were in a sense impressed and encouraged by her strength. Even when she was physically weak she was still very alive and there were many people who cared for her so she knew she was very much loved and taken care of,” he said.
Her funeral service is to be held on Thursday March 31, 2016 at 2.30pm at the St Paul’s Cathedral.

http://www.nation.sc/article.html?id=248870