Fighting for the environment, a healthy nation – the passions of Senator Dr Saphire Longmore

Senator Dr Saphire Longmore is a true nation builder.

There she was in 2017, fighting HER2-positive breast cancer, undergoing intense treatment, reconsidering the future of her two sons and coming to grips with a new reality. With her life on the line, she had all right to focus exclusively on her well-being. But she didn't.

During chemotherapy, Senator Longmore noticed the absence of a patient and asked about them. She learned the patient didn’t turn up because they were unable to access a particular drug called ‘pertuzumab’. Pertuzumab is effective in treating HER2 positive cancer and is available to patients in the public health system. But UWI patients had limited access at the time.

Senator Longmore carried out further investigations. Turns out the drug was being underutilised and its allocation was going to just a certain number of people.

Acknowledging the issue as one of life and death, she made it the focus of her 2018 ‘State of the Nation’ presentation. All Senators are allowed to contribute to the ‘State of the Nation Debate’. It is an opportunity for them to address Government policies and programmes. Longmore recounted her findings, and the issue was addressed. Since then, persons from the UWI Hospital were able to access Pertuzumab. Without a doubt, her selfless intervention saved or extended lives.

Though Senator Longmore became cancer-free in the same year, she continued battling the disease by lobbying for more mammogram machines, urging women to screen for breast cancer, encouraging persons to secure health insurance and live healthy lifestyles.

Her fight to increase the breast cancer survival percentage took on, not just the physical problems associated with the disease but the mental impact which may be just as difficult to navigate.

Dr Longmore qualified as a clinical psychiatrist in 2011. But where does a psychiatrist go when they’re disheartened? Especially when one is a breast cancer survivor, and there’s the possibility of a recurrence?

“I engage a lot with the environment. I am big on the sea,” she told Dr Gabrielle Beckford in an interview on the programme, ‘Light Your Fire Island’.

Dr Longmore is an accomplished swimmer, scuba diver and mostly snorkels off the North Coast or just outside of Ocho Rios before getting to Port Maria. “Underwater life is very important to me,” she stated.

An environmentalist at heart, one way Dr Longmore contributes to the preservation and protection of the environment is to support environmental initiatives. She is currently serving on the board of the Hope Zoo Restoration Project.

“The environment is who we are. As the most evolved species, humans have a responsibility to see to the preservation of our earthly home and the preservation of the lesser species. It’s almost like it's the responsibility of being the most evolved. You take care of the ones that are not at the level that you are at,” said Dr Longmore.

While growing up on her father’s farm in Clarendon, Dr Longmore developed an appreciation for animals and the environment. The 10 acres of land had cows, goats, ducks, chickens and trees she would climb. Later in life, she acquired a farm right beside her father’s.

It’s important to sustain the environment because nature is an exceptional mood-booster. The sound of leaves dancing in the wind can be relaxing, clear blue skies and bright flowers can cheer us up, the shade from a cluster of lofty trees and the spray of refreshing water by a cascading waterfall can cool us down. Still, the environment can turn torturous if we neglect it.

Senator Dr Longmore is in the position to analyze possible dangerous consequences of the direct and indirect impact of climate change on mental health and infuse climate change issues into health policy.

Senator Dr Longmore currently works in the Department of Psychiatry at the UWI Hospital as a consultant, opened her own psychiatric private practice in 2013 and is the President of the Jamaica Psychiatric Association.

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