MGA News Autumn 2003

Illness has prevented Marjorie Dix from ever earning herself a wage - but it has not stopped the Barnstaple pensioner from raising more than £200,000 for a charity fighting a mysterious and debilitating complaint. Marjorie has suffered from the rare condition Myasthenia Gravis for nearly 60 years. It is known as the “Rag Doll Illness” because the floppy arms and head of the doll reflect the symptoms of sufferers. The illness causes grave muscular weakness brought about by a breakdown of signals between the nerves and the muscles. Symptoms vary from person to person but can include drooping eyelids, double vision, slurred speech, difficulty in breathing or complete collapse. Modern treatments help to overcome the symptoms, but there is no cure.

Marjorie has worked over the past 30 years to raise funds for the Myasthenia Gravis Association, to help in seeking answers to this mysterious and potentially life-threatening condition. Equally important, she has worked to raise awareness and understanding of it. Her dedication has spurred Marjorie to make contacts all over the country with companies, organisations, charities, newspapers and individuals to gain donations. In recent years, since the death of her husband, Claude, a well-known Barnstaple head teacher, Marjorie has taken a rest from fund-raising. But now she is back on the campaign, promoting plans to set up a Barnstaple branch of the Myasthenia Gravis Association to provide support for the currently-known 35 sufferers of this rare illness in this area.

Marjorie told how as a young woman her mother had found it difficult to understand her speech and wondered why she did not smile. Then she started finding it difficult to eat or drink her tea. Other problems developed and at one stage she became almost paralysed. “Willpower, positive thinking and the desire to help all sufferers of MG took me to what I would have previously thought an impossible task”, she said. “I started ‘talking’ to everyone who would listen to me”. It led to Marjorie’s remarkable fundraising, starting in 1973 with her first £3 donation and gradually gathering momentum. “I illustrate my own life simply in order to prove the vital need for groups such as the one we are setting up in North Devon,” she said. “ I spent years alone, in the wilderness. If our group can prevent others from this desperate feeling of isolation then we will have succeeded.”

MGA NEWS Autumn 2003

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