Artist starves to death in Scottish wilderness
Ray Keller
By Auslan Cramb and David Sapsted
(Filed: 11/12/2002)
An artist who embarked on a 100-mile walk across one of the remotest areas
of Scotland to experience "what it is like to be alone" has died after being
found cold and starving.
Margaret Davies, 39, who had a geography degree from Cambridge University,
was barely alive when two shepherds found her on Thursday in an isolated
walkers' bothy at Kearvaig, near Cape Wrath, on the north-west tip of the
country.
She was airlifted to hospital in Stornoway in the Western Isles after one of
the shepherds ran four miles to telephone for help. She died of hypothermia
and starvation on Saturday.
Miss Davies, who loved to visit remote regions, set off by bus for Inverness
from her home at Danbury, Essex, at the end of September. She planned to
walk from Inverness to Cape Wrath, painting and writing along the way.
Wendy Davies, 67, her mother, said yesterday: "She wanted to experience
first hand what it was like to be alone, without people. She was not lonely.
She did not feel lonely.
"She obviously set herself a task. She was a geographer. She had a compass
and all the equipment. She had experience of the wildest places."
Miss Davies was barely conscious when Hamish Campbell and Alistair
Sutherland found her on the floor of the bothy, wrapped in a cardigan and
sleeping bag. In the window was a note begging for food from anybody passing
by. At her side was a journal detailing her travels, with a note to a
publisher.
It is not known how long she had been there and there were no signs of food
in the cottage, which is used by walkers visiting the area in summer but is
rarely occupied in winter.
Miss Davies, who did mainly imaginative paintings which have fetched several
thousand pounds each, had trekked across Afghanistan, Nepal, Israel, Alaska
and South America in the past. She had also lived with a destitute family in
Bangladesh and had volunteered to work with the late Mother Teresa's nuns in
Calcutta.
She had walked at least 12 miles across rough moorland to reach Kearvaig
bothy, which is situated in a gap between sea cliffs. It is thought that she
may have stayed there after losing her tent in a storm.
Mr Campbell, 64, sat with her for more than three hours and lit a fire while
his friend went for help.
He said: "We thought she was about 70. She looked very, very poor. She was
groaning but we could not make out any words. We could not believe what we
saw. She looked just like someone you see on television when they are making
appeals for starving people."
The nearest telephone was in a cottage five miles away, but Mr Sutherland
was able to raise the alarm after he met a Ministry of Defence official on a
firing range four miles away.
Mrs Davies, a retired teacher, said: "Margaret liked to experience
hardships. She liked the cold. I think she was camping on the beach. She had
left a note at the bothy saying that she was on the beach, running out of
food and asking for help. I think she was trying to catch fish, as she had a
hook.
"She obviously went back to the bothy and could not go further. Perhaps she
thought she had more chance of being found there.
"She probably misjudged the situation. She was a very deep thinker, more so
than anyone I know. She despised money and she was very thoughtful of
others. She loved isolation. She did not allow photographs of herself."
Miss Davies once said about her work: "My aim is to make a statement about
the human condition whether on an emotional, psychological, sociological or
philosophical level.
"The style and media used are determined by, and subordinate to, the subject
matter. Although I occasionally paint landscapes, the paintings which are
most meaningful to me are those in which I try to capture the essence of an
emotional state or to express an idea.
"To allow myself to travel and paint, I have at intervals held many
different jobs including teaching, fishing, care assistant, nanny."
Miss Davies's father, Richard, 71, a retired chartered surveyor, said: "She
used to disappear and go to all these places and we used to find out she had
been helping out in schools in the wildest places, teaching and doing things
for nothing for people.
"She would give anything away. She was her own person and a very strong
character."
--
Ray Keller
rayk...@theriver.com
http://personal.riverusers.com/~raykeller/
"You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some
higher moral development. You expect them to obey the law because
they know that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged."
-Michael Shirley
Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other
terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American ...the
unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or
state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the
hands of the people.
-Tench Coxe, 20 Feb 1788
Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and
strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a
woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound
I would prefer to live in a free society than
a drug free society - even if the latter could
actually be achieved.
Every man, woman, and responsible child has a natural,
fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and
Constitutional right (within the limits of the Non-Aggression
Principle) to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any
weapon -- handgun, shotgun, rifle, machinegun, anything
-- anytime, anywhere, without asking anyone's permission.
,
The Atlanta Declaration
-- L. Neil Smith
http://www.lneilsmith.com/
In truth, one who believes it wrong to arm himself against criminal
violence shows contempt of God's gift of life (or, in modern parlance,
does not properly value himself), does not live up to his responsibilities
to his family and community, and proclaims himself mentally and morally
deficient, because he does not trust himself to behave responsibly. In
truth, a state that deprives its law-abiding citizens of the means
to effectively defend themselves is not civilized but barbarous,
becoming an accomplice of murderers, rapists, and thugs and revealing
its totalitarian nature by its tacit admission that the disorganized,
random havoc created by criminals is far less a threat than are men and
women who believe themselves free and independent, and act accordingly.
- Jeffrey Snyder, "Nation of Cowards"
Perry Noid
> was barely alive when two shepherds found her....
>
> She was airlifted to hospital in Stornoway in the Western Isles after one of
> the shepherds ran four miles to telephone for help. She died of hypothermia
> and starvation on Saturday.
I wonder if they killed her. There's a lot of stories about a starving
person who was rescued only to die soon after being fed. After reading a
number of books on fasting i've discovered after a long fast, if you eat
too much of the wrong kind of food (nearly everything on the hospital
menu) it can kill you.
The worst food a starving person can eat are milk or meat which require
the body to muster considerable resoarces to digest. Milk is not easy
for an adult to digest!!
The best thing you can feed a starving person and the easist food to
digest is a couple ounces of =freshly= squeezed fruit juice from fresh
fruit (once every couple of hours, gradually increasing size of meals
and switching over to solid food over a period of time equal to half the
length of the fast). The reason it should be freshly squeezed is because
it still has its enzymes intact. Enzymes are required for digestion, so
what isn't in the food your liver must make to process the food at the
cost of calories and nutrition. Enzymes in food are distroyed by
temperatures above 105 degrees, so cooked food is completely devoid of
enzymes. A widely accepted misconception is that cooked food is easier
to digest. Beans need cooking to eliminate their digestive inhibitors,
but most vegitables and nearly all fruit requires no cooking.
The rebuild period in which the body tries to replentish it's stores of
nutrients and calories occurs over a time period equal to twice the
length of the fast. The type of food eaten during this time will have a
much greater impact on health than normal. Your metabolizm slows way
down while fasting, so if you go back to a high fat diet too soon,
you'll pack on the pounds quick!
This is stuff you're doctor will never tell you, probably because he
doesn't know.
But unless it was snow covered, there still should have been things to
eat. She could have survived on grass juice by chewing on grass but you
can't eat the grass fiber so you must spit that pulp out. Insects are
highly concentrated source of food. I'd be a pretty dismal way to live,
but you can survive.
Tim May
<m.p...@cox.net> wrote:
> I wonder if they killed her. There's a lot of stories about a starving
> person who was rescued only to die soon after being fed. After reading a
> number of books on fasting i've discovered after a long fast, if you eat
> too much of the wrong kind of food (nearly everything on the hospital
> menu) it can kill you.
Reminds me of what happened when Russians and Americans discovered that
the Germans had not completely resolved the Jewish Question. The
Russians and Americans expected that waiting until the end of winter
before invading would have cleared out the last of the Jews. Not so.
So they gave the people they found alive all the food they could eat.
They ate until they popped.
--Tim May
Jeffrey Quick
> Miss Davies was barely conscious when Hamish Campbell and Alistair
> Sutherland found her on the floor of the bothy, wrapped in a cardigan and
> sleeping bag. In the window was a note begging for food from anybody passing
> by. At her side was a journal detailing her travels, with a note to a
> publisher.
which some bleeding hearts will try to publish I'm sure.
She had also lived with a destitute family in
> Bangladesh and had volunteered to work with the late Mother Teresa's nuns in
> Calcutta.
She despised money and she was very thoughtful of
> others. we used to find out she had
> been helping out in schools in the wildest places, teaching and doing things
> for nothing for people.
>
> "She would give anything away. She was her own person and a very strong
> character."
Those who don't care about the material world will be bitten in the ass
by it.
"Steve"
"Perry Noid" <m.p...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:1fn18xf.1ptito51etahb6N%m.p...@cox.net...
> Ray Keller <rayk...@theriver.com> wrote:
>
> > was barely alive when two shepherds found her....
> >
> > She was airlifted to hospital in Stornoway in the Western Isles after
one of
> > the shepherds ran four miles to telephone for help. She died of
hypothermia
> > and starvation on Saturday.
>
> I wonder if they killed her. There's a lot of stories about a starving
> person who was rescued only to die soon after being fed.
Not a chance of that, the western Isles Hospitals are expert on exposure
injuries, the deal with hundreds of cases each year of hikers and trekkers
who lose the game of chance with scots weather, they also deal with most of
the offshore survival incidents from the north sea oil fields and the
northern trawler fleets, People forgot the higlands are getting damn close
to the artic circle, the mountains are surounded by the north seas and
north atlantic, the damnplace kills experts and novices alike, we lose a few
SAS and SBS up there most years.
"Steve"
> Those who don't care about the material world will be bitten in the ass
> by it.
There is nothing kind, gentle, meek or remotely forgiving about the
highlands.
Perry Noid
> > I wonder if they killed her. There's a lot of stories about a starving
> > person who was rescued only to die soon after being fed.
>
> Not a chance of that, the western Isles Hospitals are expert on exposure
> injuries
i was talking about treating starvation, not exposure.
Most doctors have little knowledge about how to fast. Over the years
I've heard quite a few similar news stories about a person who hadn't
eaten in about 30 days, they were still walking around, seemed fine and
then died soon after they were fed. I can still remember this news
reporter saying "she must have been too far gone" and i believed it! :o/
Another reporting that intravenious feeding can sometimes save a person.
When you go that long without eating, your digestive system shuts down
and becomes very sensitive - when you go about 30 days without eating,
you have to be very careful about how you start eating again or you can
kill yourself.
dh
Dan
--
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+ - + - + -
"Can you think that this country is to be finally subdued by a man who
never possessed real greatness, and with all his art could never
counterfeit it?."
+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -
+ - + - + -
""Steve"" <st...@day1956.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:atante$mjl$1...@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk...
Gunner
>Nor about the people in this newsgroup.
>
>Dan
If you want kindly touchy feely, try alt.compassionate.vegans
Gunner
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Why stick around if you don't like the company?
Jason
Jon Danniken
[snip]
> Miss Davies, who did mainly imaginative paintings which have fetched
several
> thousand pounds each, had trekked across Afghanistan, Nepal, Israel,
Alaska
> and South America in the past.
If I had known about this planned trek of hers, I would have bought some of
those "imaginative paintings". I bet they'll fetch a bit more now.
Jon
Matt Singer
> Dan
Please remove the +42 rod of retention that is shoved up you ass. Then hang
up and try your call again. Have a nice day.
--
Soon there'll be no pain again.
You'll feel like yourself again
In one big blast from your wave motion gun.
--
Haz-matt
Jamie Hart
"Gunner" <gun...@lightspeed.net> wrote in message
news:icoivu4tjc9sqdrs6...@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 12 Dec 2002 17:31:05 -0800, "dh" <dnad...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >Nor about the people in this newsgroup.
> >
> >Dan
>
> If you want kindly touchy feely, try alt.compassionate.vegans
>
> Gunner
>
The woman who died, brought it on herself, she went into a dangerous area
without proper provisions/equipment.
Once disaster struck, she spent time trying to catch fish until she was too
weak to travel, and then hunkered down hoping for someone to rescue her.
All this whilst she was only 4 miles from help or 5 miles from the nearest
town.
If she'd been found clutching a rifle I'd be convinced she was a member of
this newsgroup.
Jamie
Gunner
<theodor...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>If she'd been found clutching a rifle I'd be convinced she was a member of
>this newsgroup.
>
>Jamie
"You may find me one day dead in a ditch somewhere. But by God,
you'll find me in a pile of brass." Tpr. M. Padgett
Gunner
Brown Thumb
>"Steve" <st...@day1956.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:
>
>i was talking about treating starvation, not exposure.
>
>Most doctors have little knowledge about how to fast. Over the years
>I've heard quite a few similar news stories about a person who hadn't
>eaten in about 30 days, they were still walking around, seemed fine and
>then died soon after they were fed. I can still remember this news
>reporter saying "she must have been too far gone" and i believed it! :o/
>Another reporting that intravenious feeding can sometimes save a person.
>When you go that long without eating, your digestive system shuts down
>and becomes very sensitive - when you go about 30 days without eating,
>you have to be very careful about how you start eating again or you can
>kill yourself.
OK, this is misc.survivalism...how do you do it?
What if it's only been 7 days? 14? What about babies?
Kids? Elderly? (I realize the number of days they could go
without food varies, but so might the recovery methods?)
Reading some prayers leftover from a comet strike or volcanic
eruption, looks like this is worth knowing.
------------------------------------------------
Liberal in favor of the Second Amendment
John Misrahi
I remember on that tv series, 'band of brothers', where they found the
concentration camp abandoned by the guards, and they couldnt just give the
prisoners food, or they would die after barely eating for months/years,
john
"Steve"
she wasnt missing long enough for that.
Perry Noid
> >>When you go that long without eating, your digestive system shuts down
> >>and becomes very sensitive - when you go about 30 days without eating,
> >>you have to be very careful about how you start eating again or you can
> >>kill yourself.
> >
> >OK, this is misc.survivalism...how do you do it?
> >
> >What if it's only been 7 days? 14? What about babies?
> >Kids? Elderly? (I realize the number of days they could go
> >without food varies, but so might the recovery methods?)
I just don't know any special instructions about babies, kids and the
elderly except that they shouldn't fast :o/
The way you break a long fast is by eating small amounts of =freshly
squeezed= juice. The reason for fresh (uncooked) foods still have their
enzymes intact which makes them easier to digest. Your body need enzymes
to digest food, so what's not in the food, your liver must make at the
expense of calories and nutrients. Enzymes are distroyed at temperatures
over 105 F. Enzymes are devoid in all cooked, canned and bottled food.
The last things to feed a starving person is meat or milk, which are
much harder for the body to digest and put big demands on the liver.
You should drink only a couple ounces of freshly squeezed juice, once
every couple hours. Over a period equal to twice the length of a fast,
gradually increase the size of the meals and gradually switch over to
solid foods.
Your metabolism slows way down during a fast and can take a couple weeks
to return to normal, so if you start eating high calorie meals too soon,
you will pack on the pounds. Also, for a period twice the length of the
fast, your body will be replentishing it's stores of various nutrients,
so what you eat during this period will have a much greater impact on
your health than normal.
There's a lot more to fasting than that, but that's how to break it.
Russ
I can concur with what Perry has written. I had a medically necessary
fast some time ago and it was broken in exactly that way. It was a
short (eight day) fast and it only took three or four days to break
it. First, clear juices, next juices with some pulp, then fresh
fruits and soups and, at long last, regular food.
Russ
Brown Thumb
??? left at the end of September, found the first week of
November, how is that not long enough to go into
fasting mode metabolically?
Brown Thumb
>John Misrahi <lmoukhi...@sprint.ca> wrote:
>
>> >>When you go that long without eating, your digestive system shuts down
>> >>and becomes very sensitive - when you go about 30 days without eating,
>> >>you have to be very careful about how you start eating again or you can
>> >>kill yourself.
>> >
>> >OK, this is misc.survivalism...how do you do it?
>> >
>> >What if it's only been 7 days? 14? What about babies?
>> >Kids? Elderly? (I realize the number of days they could go
>> >without food varies, but so might the recovery methods?)
>
>I just don't know any special instructions about babies, kids and the
>elderly except that they shouldn't fast :o/
Well, if Mom's along, they'll get *some* milk, and if they baby is
young-enough for that, you probably take care of Mom and let
her breast-feed.
If older, or elderly, possibly the same as what you said but smaller
amounts more often? (I assume they're found sooner, of course)
>
>The way you break a long fast is by eating small amounts of =freshly
>squeezed= juice. The reason for fresh (uncooked) foods still have their
>enzymes intact which makes them easier to digest. Your body need enzymes
>to digest food, so what's not in the food, your liver must make at the
>expense of calories and nutrients. Enzymes are distroyed at temperatures
>over 105 F. Enzymes are devoid in all cooked, canned and bottled food.
>The last things to feed a starving person is meat or milk, which are
>much harder for the body to digest and put big demands on the liver.
>
>You should drink only a couple ounces of freshly squeezed juice, once
>every couple hours. Over a period equal to twice the length of a fast,
>gradually increase the size of the meals and gradually switch over to
>solid foods.
>Your metabolism slows way down during a fast and can take a couple weeks
>to return to normal, so if you start eating high calorie meals too soon,
>you will pack on the pounds.
This is not at all good, but presumably isn't as immediatly
life-threatening as making a mistake earlier in the process.
>lso, for a period twice the length of the
>fast, your body will be replentishing it's stores of various nutrients,
>so what you eat during this period will have a much greater impact on
>your health than normal.
>
>There's a lot more to fasting than that, but that's how to break it.
What about the IV? Your comment on that was too short to understand.
Richard Webb
> injuries, the deal with hundreds of cases each year of hikers and trekkers
> who lose the game of chance with scots weather, they also deal with most of
> the offshore survival incidents from the north sea oil fields and the
> northern trawler fleets, People forgot the higlands are getting damn close
> to the artic circle, the mountains are surounded by the north seas and
> north atlantic, the damnplace kills experts and novices alike, we lose a few
> SAS and SBS up there most years.
A trifle exagerated methinks.. Most recreational casualties are caused
by falls and the resulting trauma these days thanks to education and
modern clothing.
Special Forces rarely lose folk to the hill, now. SAS used to keep
dropping on the tame Brecon Beacons, tame that is if you are not
playing silly buggers under a 40kg pack and not eating for days.
Scottish Mountain Rescue callouts for Hypothermia in 2001 - 29 no
fatalaties
2000 - 37 1
fatality.
Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal 2002
Richard Webb
http://www.sub3000.com