Nicky Perry (18 Jun 1961 - 3 Nov 2023)

In loving memory of Nicky Perry (Dr Nicky Harris) who sadly passed away on 3rd November 2023, aged 62 years.

Nicky was born in Watford, her father was a Canadian Diplomat and her mother a GP. She spent her early years in various countries, including Japan, India, and Israel before teenage years in Canada. She then moved to Italy for A levels and subsequently studied Medicine at Bristol University.

House jobs were Musgrove Park, Taunton and Torbay. In Torbay she met her husband Andy, and their engagement quickly followed. She returned to Musgrove for a paediatric SHO job intending to be a GP but enjoyed paediatrics so much that she continued to follow it as a career. Further training posts in Yeovil and Bristol followed.

Andy and Nicky married in 1987 and she gave birth to their first child, Tim in 1989 and returned to work part time as a Paediatric Oncologist Associate Specialist in Musgrove. Further children followed; Simon 1992 and Maxine 1995. She worked hard to develop her expertise whilst caring for a growing family, taking a Masters in Oncology in Birmingham 1998 and a Diploma in Paediatric Palliative Care in Cardiff 2005.

She also developed a research interest in Paediatric Palliative care resulting in several published papers. She left Musgrove in 2007 to become Medical Director of the new branch of Children's Hospice South West at Charlton Farm near Bristol and continued her research interests whilst there. A family accident resulted in her leaving Charlton Farm in 2014, but she subsequently continued her passion for research & palliative care through a PhD at her 4th University; UWE, to try to understand how patients and doctors might use MyQuality (https://my-quality.net), a research tool she had developed to help patients monitor their symptoms and share them effectively with doctors. In spite of setbacks with illness she completed the PhD in October 2022 with the constant attendance of Ruby, our cockerpoo. Her doctoral studies sparked an interest in realist methodology, and she took up the post of Research Fellow in UWE in the summer of 2021 to explore this further, and continued to work there until very recently.

She played the oboe at school and university and took it up again once the children were older, playing with Wednesday Orchestra in Taunton and in an oboe trio, in addition to singing in various choirs, and picking up the saxophone more recently. She took up painting for many years, going on various courses to learn a wide variety of techniques, and even selling some of her paintings at art shows. She also enjoyed many other creative pursuits, including woodcarving, and quilting. She walked the Quantocks with Ruby and Andy.

Even with these many accomplishments, she said her proudest achievement was her children; Tim, Simon and Max.

She will be dearly missed.

Please feel free to add any photos you have of Nicky

The Funeral was; Celebrating the Life of Nicky Perry - Tuesday 21st November @ 3:00pm (15:00hrs)