Politics aside, the Browns have been dealt a tough hand in the family-making business. To have lost one child so early, and had another diagnosed with a chronic illness so young, would test anyone’s faith.
In my first year at St. Mary’s a young lady with cystic fibrosis came to speak to us about the condition. It was a privilege (and upsetting) to witness someone with such bravery talk to us about her daily routine and her then short-term prognosis. She had been invited to speak to us by Professor Robert Williamson. He was then heading up a team at St. Mary’s that was at the fore-front of developing gene therapy for conditions such as cystic fibrosis.
People like Bob Williamson are invaluable to society. They dedicate their working lives to discovering and developing therapies that can be life-changing and, indeed, life-saving. It is a tough, pain-stakingly slow business. Today, the Browns and other concerned parents are hoping that he, and other teams around the world, will eventually be successful.
