Published: 6 December, 2013
By ALICE HUTTON

A WORLD-famous cancer scientist from Kilburn whose work was “nothing short of historic” died in unexpected and mysterious circumstances inside a locked room, an inquest has heard.

Dr Anne Szarewski’s pioneering discovery of the cause of cervical cancer led to the first-ever HPV vaccine, saving the lives of countless women across the globe.

The Priory Terrace resident, who worked in frontline sexual health clinics at the Margaret Pike Centre in King’s Cross as well as for Cancer Research, died at home in August just days before what would have been her 54th birthday, Poplar Coroner’s Court heard on Monday.

A pathologist’s report read out to the inquest found that the clinical lecturer at the Wolfson Institute, Queen Mary, University of London, died as a result of a fatally inflamed pancreas.

A toxicologist discovered an unknown quantity of a drug used to treat malaria in her system but despite extensive investigations no conclusions could be reached over the medical cause of her death.

Her husband of 10 years, Lester Venter, a former political journalist turned novelist, from South Africa, said “thousands owe their lives to Anne’s work”.

Mr Venter told the court how he and her many friends, concerned about her heavy workload and the all-over body pain she was suffering in “mounting intensity”, had repeatedly implored the research scientist to “slow down”.

She had five international work trips planned for the month after she died.

He said: “I was in the habit of telling her that she was heading for a crisis. I just realised she couldn’t maintain the pace that she was setting for herself.”

Mr Venter described how the couple had slept in separate bedrooms, something not unusual as they enjoyed their own space, after coming back from a night at the theatre on August 23.

When she did not come down for breakfast the next day he was initially “pleased” that she was having a well-deserved lie-in, the court heard.

It was only when it got to 2pm that he became concerned, found the bedroom door locked and spent two hours trying to open it with an electric drill before forcing it.

"As I entered the room I saw her on the bed and I realised straight away that she was dead,” he said.

A toxicology report found chloroquine in her blood, known to be highly toxic in overdose quantities. A packet was later found in the house.

However, no explanation could be found for its presence in Dr Szarewski’s system.

A police report read to the court said that the couple’s home contained two-and-a-half cupboards of medication, a collection Mr Venter described as one of his wife’s “charming eccentricities”.

Coroner Jacqueline Devonish found that Dr Szarewski died of acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis and recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.

Mr Venter told the New Journal he had received messages “from all over the world” talking about what an “extraordinary woman” she was.

“I needed no reminding,” he said. “She was unique. She was cheerful, erudite and quite the finest person it has been my privilege to know. On the scientific level her achievements have been nothing short of historic. Her discovery of the cause of cervical cancer led to the first-ever vaccine against any form of cancer. Women all over the world are now getting the vaccine, and thousands owe their lives to Anne’s work.

“We had a wonderful life. I am heartbroken that it has been cut short. But I will remain boundlessly proud of my wife for as long as I will miss her, which is till the end of my days.”

Dr Szarewski, born in London to Polish parents, studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital before working at the Whittington Hospital, in Highgate.