In Memory of Carolien

Dr Carolien Rutgers, Co-founder of Meningioma UK and friend, was a brilliant scientist and teacher whose distinguished career as a researcher and lecturer at The Royal College of Veterinary Science was cut short by a meningioma tumour.

In the mid-nineties, Carolien and I found common cause when we met on a US meningioma website. Our own meningioma experiences led us to set up Meningioma UK in 1999. From then on, Carolien brought up her children, and worked to better the lives of meningioma patients and carers across the UK. Together we developed our support and information, the Meningioma Helpline, and email support.

She used her depth of knowledge and medical-scientific understanding to help patients and carers, and she willingly tracked down extra information when needed. Carolien was also a trustee of Brain Tumour UK for five years, and an Assessor for the BTUK Denney Fund.

Over the years she made hundreds of meningioma friends. Carolien was a friend to many of us, and she is deeply missed.

We send our special thanks to the compassionate hospital staff who enabled Carolien's sons to take her gentle guide dog, Connie, to her bedside so she could stroke her and say goodbye.

Congratulations to Quentin Oury who chose to remember Caroline in his own special way by completing the 2010 Dublin Marathon in just over 3 hours and raising a handsome sum for Meningioma UK. A superb run, and a generous and touching tribute!

"I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Caroline. She helped me on numerous occasions  when I was having my own meningioma problems.  Nothing was too much for her.  Meningioma UK will miss her very much." Eileen McCartney

"Although I hadn't seen Caroline for a couple of years now, I do look back with pleasure on the time we spent together at one of the then UKBTS annual conferences in Nottingham where we had a chance to chat and get to know each other. We subsequently met up at various brain tumour events. She was a delightful woman and it is so very sad that someone so warm and bright and relatively young had to endure such challenges as her diseases gave her."  Kathy Oliver, The IBTA

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