Mark Purdey

Mark Purdey, born in 1953, turned down a university place to start his own organic farm at the age of nineteen. In the late 1980s, he started to teach himself neurobiology, and in the mid-1990s began worldwide field research to discover the truth behind BSE, CJD and other neurodegenerative diseases. He was a vociferous campaigner on these issues, making television programs, publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals, and lecturing at prestigious institutions. He died November 2006 of a brain tumour and is survived by his wife and eight children.