The Hippocrates £5000 NHS first prize (hippocrates-poetry.org) went to former counsellor Kate Compston from Cornwall for a poem about revealing the diagnosis of dementia.
The Hippocrates Prize is an annual award for poetry and medicine with a closing date of 31st January.
Kate Compston said: “the poem “Lovely young consultant charms my husband” was prompted by the visit, 13 years ago, of the very attractive and talented psycho-geriatrician, who came to our home to give us the news of my husband Malcolm’s diagnosis. Brain scans had indicated beyond reasonable doubt that he had Dementia with Lewy Bodies. What stayed with me for years afterwards was the tension I could see being played out within her, between professional scientific excitement about something unusual, and her humanity.
The Second Prize of £1000 went to former GP Ann Lilian Jay from West Wales for “Night Visit”, with the £500 Third Prize shared between tutor Carole Bromley from York for “On Hearing for the First Time” and radiologist Rowena Warwick from Buckinghamshire for “Mrs Noone”.
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