Womble, miss your smile, and fun, and wit at conventions. Definitely still miss you but your Gerald is in good hands. Still love you, dear friend.

I loved Womble's tales of being a teacher. I was always impressed at how she related to her pupils - I always regarded students of that age as being more alien than beings with pointy ears. But her kind humanity was just one of her wonderful traits.

I met Karen through Star Trek many, many years ago. And we have been friends all that time. She offered advice and help when I was diagnosed with diabetes and would always prefer to look at the future. People always gravitated to Womble and Gerald to chat and pass the time of day. You always knew she would be the one in the middle of the people chatting. She is going to be sorely missed. But she has left a great deal of good memories, especially the memory of how she coped with what life dealt her.

Karen was very simply the loveliest, most wonderful person I have ever known. I loved her more than life itself. I miss her more than I can possibly say.

I met Karen 16 years ago as one of her doctors. I was amazed by her courage and determination through difficult and painful treatment. She made a point of keeping in touch with me over the years and always sent handwritten Easter and Christmas cards with chocolate bilbies. I loved her humour and admired her courage. I learnt a lot from her, and have shared her story with other patients. So sad to lose her now, but at least she has left a legacy in my practice.

Yhe great English poet Jonh Donne said: No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee." Karen's death diminishes us all."