Tributes to devoted Mum Marcia, 41

Feb 11 2010 by David Powell, North Wales Weekly News

TRIBUTES have been paid to a devoted mum who has died aged 41.

Marcia Louise Smith, of Old Colwyn, died at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital in London on February 4.

She had had the possibility of a double lung transplant but doctors told Marcia, who had endured a string of blood related conditions, she would not have coped long term with the transplant.

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Marcia, of St David’s Road, was set to have a double lung transplant at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital.

Brother Pete Smith, 38, who visited her regularly, said: “She needed to have an oxygen mask on. Doctors were going to give her the transplant. She was willing to stick her chin out and go through with it, but her body had deteriorated too much. They did everything they could for her.”

She died in hospital from lung and blood conditions including bronchiectasis, known as Joab’s Disease.

Pete said: “Only 250 people in the world have it. I’d never heard of it before and neither had some of the doctors in London.

“She was a great girl, such a fighter. She never cried in front of me or my mum. But, in the end, she told a friend ‘I’m ready to die now’. She had been through enough.”

Pete, a glazier, of Wynn Avenue, Old Colwyn, said his sister had been a nursing home care assistant and a hotel worker.

But health problems, including being prone to skin infections, hampered her career.

He said: “Because of her skin condition they wouldn’t let her work, but she would go to Oxfam or Scope shops to ask if she could do some voluntary work. She hated to be sitting round the house.

He added: “She adored her son Joseph, 13. She spoilt him rotten.”

Reading the sympathy cards, he said: “One says ‘she was one of the most thoughtful and kind people I have ever met’. Another said ‘I am so sorry to lose you, Marcia. You were like a second mum to me. I will miss you so much’.”

A funeral service will be held at St John’s Church, Old Colwyn on Friday at 11am. It will be followed by interment at Old Colwyn Cemetery in Llanelian Road.