Shelley Weir remembered as patient advocate, trailblazer, phenomenal woman

Friends, family and well‑wishers bid a final farewell to Weir on Saturday. (Photo Credit: BT) Shelley Elizabeth Weir, founder of the Hope Foundation and patient advocate, has been remembered as a pioneering patient advocate who helped change the conversation around lupus and other chronic illnesses in Barbados and across the Caribbean. At a church service of celebration and thanksgiving at the Cathedral Church of St Michael and All Angels on Saturday, friend Maxine McClean said Weir was “not a simple individual. In fact, she was a complex being”. Family and friends say farwell to Shelley Weir. (Photo Credit: BT) In delivering the eulogy, which contained tributes from several other people, McClean described Weir as a “mentor to many people, advisor and trailblazer in many respects”, whose work helped transform understanding of lupus and other autoimmune diseases. Weir’s life with lupus for 36 years “is perhaps testimony to Shelley’s determination and grit,” McClean said. “Today we mourn the passing of a friend, someone we knew to be brazen, outspoken, even abrasive when necessary but always honest and sincere. A woman of her word.” According to the tributes, rather than allowing the illness to define her life, she used her experience to advocate for greater awareness, education and support for others. McClean said Weir’s advocacy went beyond awareness campaigns and Barbados. You Might Be Interested In “In the words of Dr Amanda King-Greenidge, founder and president of the Saint Lucia Arthritis and Lupus Association . . . ‘We have lost a true champion of the cause. Someone who valiantly fought the good fight to the end’.” McClean continued that Weir insisted that patients have a meaningful place in healthcare discussions and decisions. “She believed that patients and physicians should learn together, not in separate spaces, but at the same table, each listening to and learning from the other.” “Her commitment to the causes she supported never waned. In fact, her commitment to Lupus was exemplified by the last project she completed — The Lupus Diaries.” For one of Weir’s closest friends, however, the woman behind the advocacy was just as remarkable. “When you needed her, she showed up. You didn’t have to explain anything. You didn’t have to ask twice. She was simply there,” Jennifer Hinkson said in her tribute. That same spirit defined her relationship with family and friends. “Shelley battled her illness for 36 years, and she did so with tremendous courage and grace…. She did not allow her illness to define the life she lived. She lived, she loved, she laughed, she helped others, and she made a difference…. She was an amazing woman with an extraordinary personality. People were naturally drawn to her…” “I will carry Shelley with me in the stories we shared, in the friendships we created, in the laughter…. and in every memory of a woman who refused to allow life or illness to stop her from truly living.” Her godson, Jason Butcher, remembered Aunty Shelley as someone who “had a warmth, a strength and a spirit that drew people to her, And when Aunty Shelley loved you, she loved you completely. She stood by the people she cared about. She believed in them, encouraged them, and made them feel that someone was always in their corner.” “The love and commitment she gave to me as a godmother were the same qualities she gave to many others. To the Hope Foundation and its patients and countless people whose lives she touched.” “Aunty Shelley never had to pretend to be anything other than who she was. Her personality, her energy, her generosity, her laughter, her compassion, and her commitment to others came from something much deeper — her soul,” Butcher said. In delivering the sermon, Rev. Dr Jeffrey Gibson told the congregation, some of whom attended virtually, “Barbados has lost a giant. Many giants arrive with loud footsteps. Shelley came with a quiet, persistent and unstoppable love.” “The best tribute that can be paid to Shelley Weir today, is not to say what a wonderful woman she was, though we all know she was…the best tribute to say, ‘the hope she carried I will carry now’. “To the board and members of the Hope Foundation do not let hope retire today. To the Ministry of Health and Wellness, to our doctors and nurses, to policymakers, hear again her plea, that every Barbadian patient especially the lupus sufferer who often suffers invisibly be treated not as a case but as a person with rights, with dignity, with hope,” said Reverend Gibson, who thanked the family for sharing Shelley “with all of us for 36 years.” Weir was interred in the churchyard of St Stephen’s Anglican Church. (Photo Credit: BT) Weir was interred in the churchyard of St Stephen’s Anglican Church. (BT) Barbados Today Stay informed and engaged with our digital news platform. The leading online multimedia news resource in Barbados for news you can trust.