It is with a deep sense of pride and joy that I learn through one of your recent publications that the award of the Order of Jamaica (OJ) has been awarded to Jamaica's medical icon, leading chest specialist and retired Senior Medical Officer (SMO) of the National Chest Hospital, Dr Muriel Lowe-Valentine.

Lowe has been a public servant serving through the Ministry of Health in the field of medicine and has been doing so for the greater part of her life. She had the distinguished honour of being included in the first batch of medical students who graduated from the University College Hospital of the West Indies in the 1950s.

As a patient under her care I found her a devoted public servant who wasn't just about personal gains or remuneration but was more about the recovery of the patients.

Lowe and her late husband, Dr Edward Jordan Valentine, who had also served the Barbican Road institution as its SMO, made a fine, exemplary team in the business of patients' recovery.

Model specialist

They, along with the nursing staff headed by then matron, Carmen Brooks, backed by the other support members of staff, had made their contributions in shaping the National Chest Hospital into the model specialist institution it has been.

During the times of government budgetary crunches and constraints, Dr Lowe could always be relied on, in her own way, to raise funds from various corporate entities. She set a very high standard of patient care which her successors should be very proud to emulate.

In the many years she has been my physician, I have known her to be a woman of strength and purpose who never sought the limelight and was always willing to go the extra mile in bringing comfort to her patients.

I do wish for her God's blessings, protection and guidance in all her daily endeavours.

I am, etc.,

HOWARD THOMPSON

Los Angeles, California