A Lifetime of Healing. A biography of Gareth Tuckwell

ISBN 9798300644628  Privately published Nov 2024

Gareth is one of the four authors of Talking About Dying, a group of individuals with different experiences and backgrounds but firmly linked by their living faith in Jesus Christ. I, also one of the authors, came to know Gareth as a wise, knowledgeable and empathetic colleague and friend.

A Lifetime of Healing, a small, readable book has recently been published by his daughter. She calls it “a love letter” to her father. It leaves us in no doubt that he is a family man, proud of his forebears, often conflicted during his busy working life when time with the family was limited and now exhibiting an exuberant joy in the family network as it grows with a new generation.

National and international events are recorded as background to Gareth’s story. Boarding School was challenging. Family professions were medicine and farming; helped along by his father Gareth chose to study medicine. Visiting extended family in Kenya Gareth met, and later married, a half cousin Mary who shared his faith, love of others and a desire to serve.

Gareth and Mary came to understand the truth that: “Where God guides, He provides” as they embarked on the various adventures and commitments of their life together.

An interest in Christian healing, fostered as a GP in both London and New Zealand, culminated in Gareth’s appointment as Director of Burrswood Centre for Healing and Spiritual Care in Kent. Teams were established; medical staff, chaplains, counsellors and house staff all shared in the holistic approach to care. Money was raised, upgrades carried out and additional beds added. The staff learned together how to help those at the end of life face their dying.

Other posts followed as Gareth used his administrative, organisational and medical skills in Macmillan Cancer Relief then Medical Director of Hospice in the Weald before being asked to return to Burrswood for his preretirement years.

A holistic approach to medical care, as exemplified in Gareth Tuckwell’s work, is the foundation of palliative care, currently a hot topic as we urge parliament to increase spending for hospices, care homes and care at home for those at the end of life. We argue that better care would be more helpful for more people than the “assisted dying” currently under debate. Holistic care should cover not only the physical, mental and psychological but also spiritual care.  Whilst spiritual care has been difficult to define and to deliver, such care was paramount at Burrswood where the Christian founder’s original vision was : to heal the sick, comfort the sorrowing and give faith to the faithless.

In 2016 Burrswood went into administration. The following is from the report in the Church Times: "Another former medical director and chief executive of Burrswood Hospital, Dr Gareth Tuckwell, said: “I thank God for Burrswood’s amazing 70 years of ministry, and for the many thousands of people who have encountered the living Lord Jesus Christ in a profound, deep, and healing way during their time there. It has been a wonderful ‘place apart’ where lives were touched and transformed in a beautiful way. I so hope and pray that there is a new chapter to come where this unique ministry can be continued.”

Deborah’s biography also tells us about Gareth’s sense of humour, love of cars, dogs, photography, holidays and much more.

His retirement has been full, with tasks and commitments dropped one by one only after a diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia.

Deborah Agnes concludes :"Behind the leader with gentle assurance, encouragement and vision, was not a self-confident man but a God confident man. Dementia quickly stripped most of his self-confidence away, but faith still remained - and even if the disease eventually were to strip that away, Gareth trusted that God would remain faithful to him, as God cannot be anything else (2 Timothy 2:13)."

Reviewed by Dr Elaine Sugden, a retired clinical oncologist, and co author of Talking about Dying (Dictum Press).

Evangelicals Now March 2025