Ulster History Circle blue plaque: Kidney patients owe their lives to health service pioneer Mollie McGeown

Mollie McGeown is described by the Royal College of Physicians as “an outstanding renal physician and clinical scientist but above all, a truly exceptional human being”.

The Ulster History Circle plaque to the health service pioneer will be unveiled by her grandson Johnny Freeland at Lurgan College this afternoon.

Chris Spurr, chairman of the Ulster History Circle, said: “Mollie McGeown gained the highest reputation for her contributions to the research and treatment of kidney disease in Northern Ireland. Her pioneering work on successful and lifesaving transplant programmes benefited countless numbers of patients and won her many accolades.

"The Ulster History Circle is delighted to commemorate this distinguished nephrologist with a blue plaque at her old school, and the circle is particularly grateful to Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council for their financial support, and to Lurgan College for their valued assistance.”

Mollie was born in 1923 and grew up in Aghagallon near Lurgan. She went to school at Kilmore before moving in 1934 to Lurgan College, and then onward to Queen’s University, to study medicine.

Mollie was an outstanding student and won many prizes and medals as an undergraduate.

In 1946, she graduated with honours. So began one of the most distinguished dedicated medical careers, despite in the early years, encountering prejudice as a married woman.

In 1949, Mollie had married Max Freeland and went on to have three talented boys, Peter, Mark and Paul.

Undeterred, she developed research interests in biochemistry and human metabolism and in 1953 was awarded a grant by the Medical Research Council.

From 1956 to 1958 Mollie was a research fellow in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, concentrating on the causes of renal stones. In 1958, with more than over 200 patients dying yearly in Northern Ireland from kidney disease, it was the Belfast City Hospital which provided a dedicated kidney facility.

Despite her limited experience, Mollie McGeown was appointed to set up and run it. She gained an international reputation for her work on stone disease, and was the first woman and first physician to be elected to the British Association of Urological Surgeons. Success after success followed as over the ensuing years, the number of deaths due to kidney disease was considerably lowered.

On the 50th anniversary of the National Health Service in 1998, Professor Mollie McGeown, who was named a CBE in 1985, was named one of the fifty women who had contributed most to its success. The renal unit in the Belfast City Hospital is named in her honour.

Throughout her career, Mollie had written more than 350 journal articles, numerous book chapters and guidelines for kidney transplantation. She retired in 1988 but still took a keen interest in the work of the renal unit.

To many patients in Northern Ireland, she was the woman who gave them a quality of life and they would not have survived had it not been for her dedicated clinical research into kidney disease.

On November 21, 2004 Mollie sadly died in her 100th year.