Walker, Mary Broadfoot (c. 1888–1974)

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Walker, Mary Broadfoot (c. 1888–1974)

Scottish pharmacologist. Name variations: Dr. Mary Broadfoot Walker. Born c. 1888 in Croft-an-Righ, Wigtown, Scotland; died Dec 7, 1974, in Wigtown; sister of Gracie Walker (physician); Glasgow & Edinburgh Medical College for Women, MBChB, 1913.

Joined Royal Army Medical Corps and served as ward physician at 63rd General Hospital in Malta (1914–18); was assistant medical officer in Poor Law Service at St. Alfege's Hospital in Greenwich (1920–36); moved to St. Leonard's Hospital in Shoreditch (1936); became member of Royal College of Physicians (1932); focused on mysterious familial disease, myasthenia gravis (MG) which causes chronic fatigue and muscle weakness and periodic paralysis; was 1st to recognize association between familial periodic paralysis and hypokalaemia; began treating patients with injections of physostigmine or neostigmine and demonstrated that treatment offered temporary relief. Created Dame of British Empire (1943); awarded Jean Hunter Prize from Royal College of Physicians.

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Walker, Mary Broadfoot (c. 1888–1974)

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