She Was An English Nurse Who Raised Enough Money To Travel 11,000 Miles And Help Treat People Living With Leprosy In Siberia, Ultimately Opening A Leprosy Hospital In 1897
I’ve always admired people willing to travel thousands of miles away from home to help those in need.
If you’re fascinated by those people’s stories, you should hear the story of Kate Marsden, an English nurse who raised funds and faced intense travels to help treat people living with leprosy in Siberia.
Kate was born in Middlesex, England, in 1859. After her father died, she grew up in poverty and quickly learned she had to work to make ends meet.
As she got older, Kate developed a passion for nursing, and in the late 1870s, she trained to become a nurse at the evangelical Tottenham Hospital.
In 1877, she volunteered to travel to Bulgaria to tend to soldiers involved in the Russo-Turkish War. During her time in Bulgaria, Kate witnessed patients living with leprosy for the first time. For those who don’t know, leprosy is a bacterial infection that often causes lesions, deformities, nerve damage, and terrible discomfort.
After her time caring for soldiers, Kate began traveling to do thorough research on leprosy and wanted to help find ways to treat it.
During her research, while she was staying in Constantinople, she heard about an herb found in Siberia that was said to help treat leprosy.
So, in 1890, after traveling to Russia to receive an award for her work as a nurse during the war, she met with prominent officials and members of high society to raise awareness for the herb and raise funds for her to travel thousands of miles to Siberia to retrieve it.
In 1891, Kate received enough funds to make the 11,000-mile trek to Siberia in search of the herb and see how it could be used in medical practice for leprosy.
Vyacheslav – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
However, during her treacherous travels, where she had to work through intense weather conditions and dangerous wildlife encounters, Kate came across a colony of people with leprosy living in Vilyuysk.
The sick people in Vilyuysk were living in such tragic conditions, as they were not only severely ill but also had nothing to survive on but rotten scraps of food and had hardly any help burying those who had passed.
Although the herb in Siberia ended up not being very helpful, as it only aided in relieving some of the symptoms of leprosy but not treating it, Kate wanted to do whatever she could to help the sick colony of people in Vilyuysk.
She traveled back to Russia and began raising funds and spreading awareness of the conditions the colony was living in so she could provide them with a hospital and proper treatment. She held audiences with esteemed members of society and royals, including Queen Victoria, the Princess of Wales, and the Empress of Russia.
Finally, in 1897, she raised enough money to open a leprosy hospital in Vilyuysk. Kate also founded the St. Francis Leper Guild, now known as the St. Francis Leprosy Guild.
These victories were not easy to come by, as some made it their mission to belittle and vilify Kate, and there were several investigations into her fundraising for fraud and embezzling. However, none of them found any financial misconduct in her charitable endeavors.
As Kate became older, she fell ill and eventually became an invalid. She passed away in 1931 at 72. The scandals and investigations Kate was accused of may have heavily damaged her reputation, but her journey and efforts in helping those with leprosy were nothing short of admirable.
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