EDDIE ASKEW, OBE 

Mr AD Askew OBE, known as Eddie, served The Leprosy Mission faithfully for 37 years.  Eddie and his wife Barbara joined The Leprosy Mission in 1950.  One month after they were married, they sailed for India and on arrival travelled 1,000 miles to Purulia, the largest leprosy centre in West Bengal, India.  Within a few weeks they had offered their services at Purulia Leprosy Home and Hospital, run by the Church Missionary Society.  Dr Neil Fraser, who interviewed them, recommended them for service, but noted at the time (as Eddie discovered 24 years later, on appointment as The Leprosy Mission's International Director), that Barbara was more mature than Eddie, but he could see possibilities in Eddie! 

The Askews' remit was to build Purulia hsopital up to become a centre of excellence and in 1952 Eddie was asked to take over as Superintendent, a job he did for 13 happy years.  They learned to speak Bengali and began to teach in the Purulia school for children with leprosy. 

'One day in the art class I sent the boys out to wander the hospital grounds and bring back something they thought beautiful.  Several brought flowers, one a multicoloured stone, another a leaf.  One brought a small cauliflower.  "Why do you think that's beautiful?" I asked.  "Because you can eat it," he replied.  Food is beautiful in a breadline economy where two meals a day is luxury.' *

During their first two years, the Mission provided grants to build a new well-designed school, but soon after disaster struck.  A howling cyclone ravaged the area, and more than 12 inches of rain fell in 48 hours.  The school was wrecked; roofs were shattered and rooms flooded, but patients rallied round and in a few weeks the school was repaired and back in action.  In time one of the pupils trained as a physio technician and later became the senior physio in a large Indian industrial town.

After some thought about how to help the patients improve their living conditions, it was decided that food was the key.  A central kitchen was set up.  Regular paint and colour washing; the new kitchen; water-flushed septic tank lavatories for everyone and also a well, helped to improve living conditions and did wonders for morale.  Excavation of the well was done by hand and not without difficulties, but perseverance brought success and lifted the spirits of the patients who had responded to the challenge with determination and humour.  It took a few years, but slowly the centre began to look like and function as a well-organised medical centre.

Another patient, Kenneth Kin Thein, went to work with Dr Paul Brand in Vellore.  When he returned to Purulia after training, he set up a small physio department.  Eddie invited Paul Brand to Purulia to demonstrate his techniques and Purulia became the first hospital outside of Vellore to open its own reconstructive surgery unit.

During Eddie's time in Purulia, patients were treated with diamino diphenyl sulphone, (DDS) also called dapsone.  It was more effective than any past medicine and in Purulia, Dr Ernest Muir, an eminent doctor and famous leprologist, extended its use to 150 patients.  At first it was given as an injection and later as tablets.

Eddie says of this time:  "We had to make heart-rending choices."  He was referring to who to admit; the old and helpless, who needed compassionate care and would be there for life, or the younger people who could be treated successfully and discharged.  However, they never refused to admit a child even when they were overcrowded.  "The children were often bone-thin, malnourished and neglected." 

Eventually, the time came when there were more people needing treatment than places available, so after much research a new clinic was opened 28 miles away at Jhalda and later another a bit further away at Jeypur.  In 1960 the first paramedical workers lived and worked from Jhalda, beginning house-to-house examinations of nearly the whole population.

Purulia became a place where technicians, doctors, shoemakers and artificial limb makers would come to train.  As Eddie said, 'leprosy was on the move.'

In September 1964, the Government of Bhutan invited Eddie, as part of a three-man exploratory team, to look at the leprosy situation in Bhutan.  They met many people suffering from untreated leprosy conditions and talked with the Prime Minister and other officials.  No decisions had been made on how to help and Eddie found it hard to face such suffering with empty hands.  Back in Purulia Eddie wrote a report for The Leprosy Mission's International office.  Within a month the first Leprosy Mission doctor had volunteered to work in Bhutan.  Gottfried Riedel was an experienced German doctor who had served with The Leprosy Mission since 1951.  Over the years, the Mission, in co-operation with the government of Bhutan, became responsible for leprosy control over the whole of Bhutan.  It was and is an integrated service, open to all who are sick.

In Purulia in 1962, a film was made of the work, to be used in publicity and fundraising. Then in 1965, Eddie, Barbara and their two daughters Stephanie and Jenny left Purulia to return 'home'.  To their daughters, Purulia was home.  Thoughts of going back to England were already in their minds, but the General Secretary visited them in Purulia and offered Eddie a position at The Leprosy Mission International office in London.

As they were settling into their home, Eddie was preparing to fly to Ethiopia to assess a new project.  In Addis Ababa he was invited to join a small but influential group, which included Drs Paul Brand and Ernest Price.  They were interested in creating a new training centre which was to become ALERT, the All Africa Leprosy and Rehabilitation Training Centre.  In 1966 Eddie became one of the four founding members of what is now the leading leprosy training centre in Africa.  Over the years he travelled frequently to Africa to assess how The Leprosy Mission's money was being spent and also to encourage workers who were often isolated in their work.  Dr Stanley Browne, who had a lifetime's experience in Africa, was a great help.  Eddie's travels took him to Lambarene in Gabon, West Africa, through the Congo; and into Uganda.  In all these places Eddie was involved in groundbreaking work. 

In 1974, Eddie became The Leprosy Mission's International General Secretary.  Eddie and Barbara went to New Zealand to meet members of the Mission's Council and from this visit Eddie proposed an international conference for TLM representatives worldwide.  It involved a lot of planning, but took place in 1976 in Singapore.  It was a vital meeting to discuss policies and programmes and to set agreed management objectives. After the conference the Askews continued their travels, going to Hong Kong, Korea and Hawaii.  Whilst in Hawaii, they visited Molokai where Hawaii's leprosy sufferers were isolated.  They met 70-year-old Alice who was a patient there since the age of 19 and had never left.  Bangladesh was another country that made its mark on Eddie.  He visited a couple of years after they became independent from Pakistan.  He was upset and angered by the destruction of human dignity which he saw there.

In India, as the work expanded, there was more emphasis on control and rehabilitation.  In Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, The Leprosy Mission took on more responsibilities and there was pressure to do more in Africa.  In 1985, the work began in China, by official invitation, to take part in the International Leprosy symposium in Guangzhou.  As Eddie says in Edge of Daylight: Memoirs of a Life with The Leprosy Mission, 'Life was never boring.  Even the routine was challenging . . . The fact that I worked happily as Director for 13 years suggests that I got at least 51% of the decisions right.  I hope.'

In the 1950s Eddie met Mother Theresa.  She was relatively unknown at that time.  She was a commanding character, strong and unshakeable.  Her humility was powerful and her compassion and warmth came through any disagreements.  During The Leprosy Mission's centenary celebrations Mother Theresa said of The Leprosy Mission, 'I thank God for The Leprosy Mission and its workers. It was their inspiration and dedication that set the example and gave me the courage to begin my work with leprosy sufferers.'

In Calcutta, survey work began in the slums and eventually The Leprosy Mission took over the small Oxford Mission clinics, at their request.  One of Eddie's last acts before retiring was to declare a 30-bed hospital open.  It had all the support services it needed and soon became a centre of high quality surgical and medical care.

The discovery of multidrug therapy (MDT) encouraged governments and voluntary agencies to find and treat more and more patients.

Eddie believed that Wellesley Bailey, founder of The Leprosy Mission, would have reacted with wonder and joy at the changed outlook of the Mission and thanked God for it.  Yet he would have asked us to remember the individual and personal needs of every leprosy-affected person.

Reflecting on Eddie's life, after his death on 27 September 2007, Silvano Perotti,  who worked closely with Eddie during his time as International Director of The Leprosy Mission, said, "Eddie was a man of integrity whose love for God found expression in respect for people.  Fifteen years of exhilarating, stimulating, challenging, sometimes frustrating but never boring involvement as we sought to give expression to the love and relevance of Christ." 

Geoff Warne, The Leprosy Mission's General Director, said of Eddie, "To me he is a giant, the most significant figure in TLM's last 50 years' history.  Shining through each of the accounts of his life were not just his achievements (leader, trustee, painter, writer, advisor) but even more his character; his humility, his faith, and especially his honesty."

* From Edge of Daylight, Memoirs of a Life with The Leprosy Mission.

Eddie's books are available from TLM Trading and his paintings from his own website

Find out about the bursaries set up in honour of Barbara and Eddie Askew.