November 17 2006 ~ Mark Purdey 1953-2006
- Mark died on 12th November.
The funeral will take place at Nettlecombe church, Nr Monksilver, Somerset on Wednesday 22nd November at 2.00pm - All are welcome.
Messages of condolence and tributes to be published on his
web site - www.markpurdey.com
may be
sent by e-Mail to Jane Barribal info@equofax.com
Mark Purdey's dogged and self-financed battle in trying to tell a deaf Establishment that it is manganese that can cause the prion protein to transform into its BSE causing form won him the affectionate respect of many. He pointed out that the sole piece of evidence for the 'hyperinfectious' theory of BSE is that TSEs ( along with various other diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, thyroiditis, some cancers and toxic metal encephalopathies which are not labelled 'hyperinfectious') can be transmitted via injections of TSE diseased brain tissues into unfortunate laboratory animals. (See warmwell pages)
Michael Meacher and former chairman of the House of Commons Agriculture Select Committee, Sir Richard Body, were among those who wanted Mark's work to be taken seriously. Sir Richard once said, "The Ministry of Agriculture has behaved disgracefully because he challenged their authority. ... A lesser man than he would have given up years ago. "
In 2000, the Times called him a person " of extremes: impassioned, intelligent, dogged, charming and obsessive" In 1996, Andrew Marr wrote in the Independent: that Purdey was " ...harassed by the "official" scientists who were committed to the pesticides he was questioning. After all, Maff had licensed OPs to be used in quantities far higher than in other countries; if there was a link with BSE, the department itself would be responsible for it, and who knows what else?"
He will be deeply missed by those lucky enough to have been in contact with him and to have been aware of his quite extraordinary, selfless thirst for truth.
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