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Claire and her mum, Annie
Claire Louise McVey was born on May 29, 1984, in Liverpool. When she was
three months old, her mother became a single parent after the McVeys'
marriage broke down and Claire's father walked out. Annie McVey herself
came from the kind of home where it paid to read the signs, and she has
never lost that habit of looking out for trouble and trying to head it
off. She prepared almost fanatically for her own children's upbringing,
reading all the books and even buying New Scientist. James and Claire both
had natural pureed fruit and vegetables, no salt or sugar. Sweets only at
the weekends. 'Neither of them has fillings.' Click. 'Had fillings.'
Claire informed her mother that when she grew up she would get married and
have a big house with a little house for her mummy down the bottom of the
garden and a husband who was going to stay home and look after the
children who, by the way, would be twin girls. 'Your husband might not
want to stay home and look after the children,' cautioned her mother. 'I
wouldn't have married him if he wasn't willing.' Not surprisingly, this
natural rationalist intended to become a lawyer - in America, because she
reckoned they got to argue more in that system and she was game for a
fight was Claire.
Claire McVey, 15, died on January 11, 2000 from variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after months of illness. She is thought to be
the youngest person to die from the disease which has so far killed 52
people in Britain.
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