My wife, Marion Ecob-Prince, who has died aged 74, was a scientist who spent her career studying the neuromuscular junction, where nerves and muscle fibres meet. Working in laboratories in New York, Newcastle and Glasgow, she developed tissue culture techniques to study the progression of a range of neuromuscular diseases that can cause severe pain, muscle atrophy and numbness.
Born in Heanor, in Derbyshire, to Anne (nee Ford), an assistant in a post office, and John Ecob, a delivery driver, Marion attended Spondon Park grammar school in Derby, where she was an excellent fencer, captain of the netball team and head girl. In 1968 she went to Bristol University to study microbiology, and in her fresher year won the British universities ladies fencing championship (foil).
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