Tribute to Ness Hamilton

TRIBUTE

Vanessa Hamilton

It is with great sadness that I let members know of the death of my dear friend and fellow practitioner Vanessa Hamilton, known to her family and friends as Ness.

Ness died at her home in Worcester on 19 May, after a short illness.

Ness trained first in Leamington 1986-89. Her classmate Sandy remembers her vivacious presence in the classroom and at social occasions with their classmates.

She furthered her training at CICM in the early 1990s, where she met James Wilder (my classmate from a later cohort at Leamington).

James put us in touch, knowing I had just moved to Hereford and was looking for acupuncture connections. James rang me saying ‘you and Ness have to meet. I know you’re going to get on.’

He was right.

Ness and I became close friends and acupuncture mates.

Ness worked at different places in Hereford. She practised at Kyrle House multidisciplinary clinic for many years, with DASH, a drug and alcohol service using NADA ear acupuncture, and at rooms she set up where she was living. She treated all comers, going to them if they couldn’t get to her, giving of her time beyond the acupuncture room when someone was in need. She put her heart into everything she did.

I am so privileged to have shared the acupuncture journey for a while with Ness. She was my go-to person for a chat about spirits of points, as well as discussions on that invaluable pulse-taking. I hold a deep respect for her as a practitioner. Dedication to patients, a truly compassionate nature, always with a wise light sense of humour – it’s a rare mix. Ness had it.

I also got to know her family and what became a wider shared group of friends. She was a devoted mother to her three boys Fergus, Tom and Pete and a treasured friend to a great many folk in Hereford and beyond. We shared holidays, parties, growing our families, the good times and the bad.

In honour of Ness, I’d like to pay tribute to the power of good connections. Friendships formed and developed, the sense of those wider connections that sometimes turn out to be something you didn’t expect, the connections to, from and through the next generation, and the acupuncture community that continues to make, keep and develop connections.

But most importantly, I want to pay tribute to Ness as a person. A beautiful soul, a compassionate, caring human being, and a brilliant acupuncturist. She will be missed terribly by family and friends, and by all the patients she helped.

Ness was buried at Humber Woodland of Remembrance June 16.

Bridget Scott

Member: Hereford

I first met Vanessa 35 years ago studying in the same group at the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture in Leamington Spa. She was a lovely, bright, sympathetic, and sensitive woman.

After studying together we stayed in touch and I used to visit her and her then husband Simon in Hereford, and Hank the dog, and as time moved along their boys Fergus, Tom and Pete.

There was always a welcome when I appeared, and they were a lovely family. Over the years we had talked a lot about acupuncture and many other things in life as one does.

When I left London in 2000 I moved to Hay-On-Wye near to Hereford and saw Ness on and off over the years and talked to her on the phone regularly.

Ness was a very good practitioner and had really good empathy, and I am very saddened by her passing. I am very glad that I met her, and spent time with her and had a long friendship with her. She will be sorely missed by many people.

Sandy Sandaver Member: Hereford