Community news: Nevin Stewart shares tales from a life in chemistry
One of our long-time members reflects on how chemistry has played a key role in his life.
Nevin Stewart
Dr Nevin Stewart FUU裸聊直播 faces challenging health issues which have permanently damaged his mental health and disabled him physically over the last thirty years.
As he approaches his 鈥榯hree score and ten鈥� milestone he is essentially bed ridden and in constant pain. Following a near death experience in late 2024 he has been taking stock and reflecting on the life he has lived.
He is a lifelong believer in the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and his faith and mantra of 'Never give up' sustain him whilst he continues to make significant intellectual and practical contributions to this world.
When Dr Nevin Stewart FUU裸聊直播 was 30, his second child, a boy, was born. He was a very long baby with a so-called Marfanoid habitus and a cleft palate.
The delivery team questioned Nevin and his wife about family medical history and ultimately he was given a diagnosis of Stickler Syndrome 鈥� hereditary progressive arthro-opthalmopathy.
Following this diagnosis Nevin learned that Stickler Syndrome is both rare and underdiagnosed, due mainly to variability of expression. Currently it is estimated to affect 1 in 4,000 of the British population, yet the majority of those affected are unaware that they have this autosomal dominant and hereditary genetic collagen-related defect.
Although not life-threatening, it mainly affects connective tissue in the joints and eyes. AIs telltale diagnostic combination is cleft palate at birth with retinal detachment(s) in later life.
Disclosure that Nevin鈥檚 mother was so affected confirmed the diagnosis as did later genetic testing of family members at Addenbrooke鈥檚 Hospital, Cambridge, where there is a specialist Stickler Syndrome clinic.
The syndrome has underlain multiple health challenges in Nevin鈥檚 life to the point where he is now in constant osteoarthritic pain but with good visual acuity in both eyes. Nevin has written a poem which is as follows:
Stickler Syndrome Awareness - A Personal Perspective
Stickler Syndrome, classed as being rare
Often missed, its burdens deeply layered.
Most affected needing long-term care,
While those who treat it must be well-prepared
It strikes about one child in each four thousand
It threatens life's enjoyment not its span
It deafens, blinds, and cripples where it lands
A scourge on child, on woman and on man
Addenbrooke鈥檚 stands firmly with its mission
Give care to help preserve the patient's sight
Front-line teams with knowledge and precision
With nursing care that's always apposite
Blighted, still I count myself as blessed
Retinas detached but each repaired.
My aunt and mother, blinded and distressed
Like me, their father crippled, yet his sight was spared.
Our son had a cleft palate at his birth
His joints were loose, we saw his limbs were long
Moorfields saved his sight and they deserve
Unending thanks, we kept steadfast and strong
What of those without awareness?
Is blindness born of unpreparedness?
Does ignorance bring such distress?
Will wisdom seal your campaign's success?
But Nevin鈥檚 story started before this. His early life was unremarkable 鈥� born and raised in Linlithgow (notably the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots and more recently Alex Salmond).
As an infant he was baptised into the Presbyterian Church of Scotland at St. Michael鈥檚, Linlithgow. This beautiful awe-inspiring 13th century church stands adjacent to the burnt-out shell of Linlithgow鈥檚 Royal Palace 鈥� a casualty in 1746 of the Duke of Cumberland鈥檚 careless and ill-disciplined troops bivouacking therein. It is still unclear if the fire was the result of pure carelessness, or a deliberate wanton act of arson.
St Michael鈥檚 was a worship place of Scotland鈥檚 kings and queens, as well as Nevin鈥檚 predecessors on his mother鈥檚 side who had been congregation members for the previous two generations.
St Michael's Church, Linlithgow
At age 6, and possessing a sweet boy soprano voice, he joined the junior church choir and attended Sunday school, progressing to Bible classes before being confirmed as a communicant at age 16. Thereafter he joined the senior church choir. Taking piano lessons from the age of eight, he managed to pass Grade 6 but then turned instead to lessons in playing the church organ.
Educated at Linlithgow Primary School and Linlithgow Academy, he graduated from the University of Edinburgh with First Class BSc and PhD degrees in pure chemistry.
Moving south to England and embarking on a career as a research chemist with BP, he made contributions to 30 of their patents, mainly in the area of production chemistry used in North Sea oil operations.
Nevin was named as a co-inventor on one of these for a scale inhibitor that is still deployed commercially today. This happy state of affairs was drastically disrupted when two terrible, unavoidable events happened simultaneously in his family and work life - a toxic combination.
At 39, he suffered two nervous breakdowns and a psychosis as a direct consequence. In the darkest depths of the illness, he was aware that that his self-confidence, self-respect, memory and personality were being stripped away leaving him with nothing but his faith in Jesus Christ.
He clung desperately to this while his very being was under attack. The psychosis destroyed his career with BP and he was medically retired at 41. Diagnosed as being bipolar and permanently damaged mentally, he fought back 鈥� and continues to do so!
Nevin is now 69. What has happened in the intervening years? Fifteen years passed simply enjoying retirement. However, he is "no slouch" and with a Presbyterian work ethic he busied himself volunteering as Lettings Secretary for his local town centre Methodist Church.
As a member and part of the property team, he grew rental income six-fold to a handsome six-figure sum over the 10 years that he occupied the role, making good use of the 'talents' one might say.
As an interesting hobby he also completed NVQ Levels 2 and 3 in food preparation and cookery at Guildford College, exercising his newly acquired skills for social and charity purposes.
This included cooking for Footsteps, a local Sunday afternoon soup kitchen where Nevin prepared the soup for around 40 people once every other month over a 15-year period.
A particular highlight during this time was his appearances on ITV's Britain's Best Dish. One involved cooking on camera his 2007 鈥淗ardy's Amateur Chef of the Year鈥� runner up prize-winning - and tongue-in-cheek - signature fusion dish named 'Steak Nevine'! As Nevin observed, synthetic chemistry and cookery share in common careful attention to method and observational skills.
In 2011 he found a surprising project to get his teeth into. Prompted by a remarkable glut of apples in the neighbourhood that autumn it seemed to him that the traditional method of pressing fruit was both clumsy and wasteful, and not practical for indoor use.
Cider fermentation
Working closely with neighbours and friends Dick and Nick, he developed the (Juice and Strain鈩�) J&S庐 process, based on simple chemical engineering principles. This is a novel way to produce clear, fresh apple juice by the gallon in a domestic kitchen.
He also discovered new skills in promoting the method and had articles and newspaper features published in six countries such as in the United States and .
The kit was commercialised by Vigo Presses Ltd, Devon in 2017. Although the kit and process tick all the boxes - being single-step (synchronous), higher yielding, lower cost, requiring much less manual effort and quicker than the conventional two-step (sequential) 'pulp and press' method - Juice and Strain鈩� never fully took off much to his disappointment.
However, he found the whole business of developing and refining the juicing process, and then promoting it far and wide hugely enjoyable, satisfying and therapeutic. The YouTube channel, , has plenty of cider-making videos and additional detail, while there is also a .
Nevin further honed his PR skills when his daughter produced a remarkable macram茅 version of the Periodic Table. His promotional efforts led to her artwork being exhibited at the UU裸聊直播 and 22 other venues in 2019 (supported by the UU裸聊直播) including the IYPT 2019 (International Year of the Periodic Table) opening event in Paris.
For personal and family reasons, Nevin鈥檚 next project was the one closest to his heart. His own health issues have included multiple retinal detachments (successfully repaired) and cataracts removed with artificial lenses implanted, for which Nevin gives sincere thanks to the world-class surgical teams and their supporting staff at Moorfields Eye Hospital.
He has early onset glaucoma and, at 62, developed severe osteoarthritis in his knees, then shoulders and hip joints, with X-ray evidence of the disease advancing in his spine.
However, seeing how his family has been affected through the generations, he counts himself as being relatively fortunate. His mother was totally blinded by retinal detachments at age 50, her elder sister endured the same in middle age. Their father lost an eye to detachments and was crippled by osteoarthritis in later life.
Nevin was a founding Trustee of the Stickler Syndrome Support Group charity, serving for several years as Treasurer and making major contributions in securing a National Lottery Grant.
In this he drew upon his five years鈥� experience as a BP Research team leader writing annual research proposals. This Grant supported a development worker financially over three years. Now renamed the Stickler Syndrome UK charity, it benefits from a new team of dedicated Trustees.
All this has spurred him on to develop his Band Keratopathy project which has a medicinal chemistry basis. This chronic eye condition affects millions worldwide, and current NHS surgical treatment is both painful and unpleasant.
He has at last achieved traction with his research proposal. An in August 2023 was key to this and he looks forward to a future where an effective, pain free treatment of formulated eye drops can offer hope to those who are suffering currently. Chemistry World has more recently published that reports truly remarkable project progress.
While waiting for this project to develop Nevin鈥檚 attention was drawn to applied physical chemistry aspects of the whisky maturation process 鈥� something to touch the heart of any Scot! A recently published patent application, WO2025023467 refers.
He has also developed an Enhanced Oil Recovery project that aims to exploit advanced chemical physics with a view to increasing the yields that can be achieved. This project has yet to gain traction but hope springs eternal. Further details are contained in two additional Chemistry World published letters, in and .
A speculative second part, referred to in that November 2023 letter, is now publicly disclosed.
My invention is a break from the norm. It is solidly rooted in applied chemical physics rather than 'suck it and see' formulations. The main practical difference will be that the single glycol ether or mixture of glycol ethers, with Tm matching formation temperature, will be identified, and selected, by simple experiment, and will be the major component of a tailored formulation.
There will be no requirement for a "cosolvent", such as hexan-1-ol and a specifically selected structuring surfactant of glycol ether-matching HLB will be, to avoid emulsification complications a minor component of the formulation. What the cost implications of this approach will be I know not.
As the formulation front advances, a combination of a drop in IFT to ultra low levels, together with the establishment of a continuous concentration gradient between oil and aqueous phases whereby The Marangoni Effect will be manifested, and capillary - trapped oil will flow as a "bank" to the producer well.
What Nevin suggests is that any effective new approach to mobilise capillary-trapped crude oil in intimate contact with formation aqueous phase, within a rock matrix, must be of global interest and, hopefully, significance.
It is noteworthy that the graphical representation of the three-phase region with temperature takes the form of a fish, very similar to the early Christian Icthus drawing which in Greek letters spells out 鈥楯esus Christ, God鈥檚 son, Saviour.鈥� Moreover, the Marangoni Effect can be observed by swirling brandy in a goblet and the drainage pattern observed is often referred to as 鈥榯he tears of Christ鈥�.
Returning to Nevin鈥檚 story, during his first undergraduate year, like so many young people Nevin was introduced to the pleasure of occasional binge beer drinking. This was during weekend and summer camp as a cadet in the University Officer Training Corps. Beyond that, again like so many others, he went on to regularly consume red wine socially in adult life.
However, with the onset of severe osteoarthritis he started to use alcohol to manage the pain. This gradually became an unhealthy habit. Regular consumption increased over a number of years to the point where he could consume up to three bottles of red wine a day.
Yet, remarkably, this dependence came to a sudden end in September 2024 during a hospital stay at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford. Nevin found the exclusion of all alcohol surprisingly easy to cope with, experiencing no cravings and needing no supporting medication. He thereby concludes that, fortunately, he had not become addicted to the demon drink.
The Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford
To add to his health issues, Nevin has developed sleep apnoea. He wears a mask overnight equipped with a forced air supply. This ensures that he continues to breathe while asleep but can only be tolerated for a few hours at a time. Waking invariably in the dark and lonely early morning hours, he often contacts the Samaritans.
Nevin explains: "It was my older sister in Scotland that recommended this life crutch to me. In her thirties she had volunteered for eight years with her local Samaritans and clearly appreciated and understood the benefits gained from a listening ear.
"They don鈥檛 counsel or judge but do help you explore your deepest feelings and offer help with emotional challenges. Talking with a Samaritan can help strengthen and support any individual even at their most vulnerable.
"I think Samaritans do great work and deserve society's gratitude for all they do so selflessly. I鈥檝e written a poem as an expression of my appreciation and thanks."
Samaritans
Samaritans always there to listen
Don't ever judge, sensitive to one's plight
Nor counselling, their insights do glisten
Comfort and support on dark lonely nights
Emotional crutch in times of dire need
Exploring life's challenges sensitively
Expert training teaches slowly not speed
Such selfless service, worthy empathy
Dawn beckons a new shift of volunteers
The lifelines stay open they shoulder bravely
learning of problems, perhaps lasting years
With sudden anguish, grief - they cope wisely
Supervisors staying the hand of some suicide bent and in desperation
Personal toll when connection done
Was life saved through conversation?
"Society indebted" I say
for selfless sacrifice with praise not sought
Please give generously the bills to pay
Service volunteered with grace, never bought
When Nevin was hospitalised again towards the end of 2024, a doctor advised his loving wife of 46 years that he might live for up to two more weeks.
But after 10 weeks in hospital recovering from morphine-induced respiratory failure, he returned home.
Six muscle-wasting weeks in bed at the Royal Surrey County Hospital then four weeks of painful physiotherapy carried out at Milford Hospital demanded all his determination and effort.
But Nevin is full of praise for the care he received. He says: 鈥淭he 6 Cs of the Care Quality Commission 鈥� namely care, compassion, communication, courage, competence and commitment 鈥� were clearly evident throughout the periods spent in both hospitals.
"Over and above actually saving my life, the restoration of my mental and physical health, mobility and even spiritual wellbeing were also realised. Thank you to all the staff and pastors that prayed for and with me during my 10 weeks of crisis and trial.鈥�
His pre-hospital severely limited mobility is now almost restored, and he has had plenty of time to reflect on life. Ill health is a cross that he bears patiently and with fortitude, supported by his faith, family and friends.
Nevin realises he is richly blessed with a highly intelligent, loving wife and two similarly clever and gifted children and daughter-in-law who has borne two grandsons, all a source of great joy.
Moreover, he feels that he has not been tempted beyond that which he can bear and sees God's intended mission and purpose for his life as seen through a glass darkly.
These few verses from favourite Christian songs resonate strongly with him:
I bind unto myself today
the strong name of the Trinity
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One and One in Three.
and
Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise
Thou mine inheritance, now and always
Thou and Thou only first in my heart
High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.
Nevin said: "My dear dad was an Irish believer. He loved these words and so do I."
Here I am Lord, is it I Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if You lead me.
I will hold Your people in my heart.
As Nevin himself added: 鈥淚鈥檓 aware that my life is going the same way as my grandfather鈥檚 who was bedridden in his final years but I count myself fortunate to have found stimulating projects I can develop.
"They keep me engaged with the wider world and motivated. Life is precious so my message to anyone struggling with adversity and health challenges is never give up!鈥�