Keeping a positive outlook: Margaret Monk

Abstract

F or a long time it was believed that haemophilia caused bleeding only in boys and men. It was known that women could be carriers and their risk of significant bleeding problems had been documented, but medical attention focused on the more apparent bleeds in the male line. Specialists knew there were other inherited disorders that caused excessive bleeding but they were not easy to diagnose and, in the wider world, awareness was generally low. A woman with a severe bleeding disorder was a complete enigma. Margaret Monk was born in 1941; she was diagnosed with type 3 von Willebrand disease (VWD) when she was 20. This form of VWD is the most severe – levels of von Willebrand factor are undetectable – and the rarest.