Eveline and Andrew's emotional return to Charing Cross Hospital
Eveline and Andrew's emotional return to Charing Cross Hospital
06 July 2026
Trigger warning – this story contains references to baby loss.
In March, we invited former patient Eveline and her husband Andrew to visit Charing Cross Hospital for the first time in 45 years.
Rewind back to 1981, and Andrew and Eveline were expecting a baby and getting ready to celebrate their two-year wedding anniversary.
But their whole lives were turned upside down when seemingly normal morning sickness took a turn for the worse, and Eveline developed severe abdominal pain.
Eveline was rushed to her local hospital in Aberdeenshire, where she was diagnosed with a molar pregnancy and received the heartbreaking news that her pregnancy had ended.
Molar pregnancy falls under Gestational Trophoblastic Disease (GTD), a rare disease where the baby and placenta don’t develop how they should after conception. Sadly, this means the baby cannot survive, resulting in a miscarriage or requiring a procedure to remove the pregnancy.
Eveline was taken to Charing Cross Hospital, the only hospital specialising in the treatment of molar pregnancy at the time, where she started chemotherapy.
For the next few months, 9 West ward at Charing Cross Hospital became a second home for Eveline, as she travelled between London and Scotland for treatment.
Eveline described the sense of camaraderie shared by the women on the ward, who quickly became close friends, drawing strength from one another during the hardest moments of their treatment.
The women wrote a poem together about their experience, which Eveline has kept with her ever since:
ABOVE: Mole In The Hole - a poem created by Eveline and the women on 9 West.
Eveline made a full recovery following treatment and returned home to Aberdeen where she pursued a 33-year career in local government.
When the couple retired, they decided it was time to pay a visit to the hospital that had saved Eveline’s life.
She shared: “Returning to Charing Cross after all these years was a bittersweet experience. It was a reminder of some happy times and friendships made during a very dark time.”
Andrew also said: “It was incredibly moving to return after so long. We both had tears in our eyes.”
ABOVE: Eveline and Andrew earlier in their lives
During their return visit, Eveline and Andrew met with GTD Clinical Nurse Specialists Debbie Damon and Amber Goldsmith, alongside Business Support Manager Caroline Lewis, who explained how the GTD service has changed and developed over the past few decades.
“We were delighted to find out the progress made in terms of treatment and patient support provided at Charing Cross Hospital,” shared the couple, who were inspired to donate following their visit.
The service celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, and while much has changed in that time, it was clear that the exceptional care given to women and their families has remained the same.
The GTD team at Charing Cross Hospital are world leaders in the investigation and treatment of these rare conditions. Today, the service holds the largest database of GTD patients in the world, holding records of over 35,000 women with the condition.
The hospital is still one of only two in the UK that treats GTD.
