Pioneering Maggot Nurse Wins An MBE

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A woman from South Wales who specialises in the use of maggots to heal wounds has been awarded an MBE for services to nursing.

Mary ‘The ‘Maggot’ Jones

Thanks to her pioneering work, Mary Jones has seen maggot therapy soar in recent years.

From a couple of treatments a month 12 years ago there are now more than 200 each week in the UK.

“Once I realised just how effective maggots are in treating infected, sloughy and necrotic wounds, often saving limbs from amputation, I was determined to spread the word,” she said.

“In my first year I did 28,000 miles travelling around the UK getting the therapy known.”

Much of Mary’s campaign to put maggots on the map has been unpaid, and she never switches off her mobile in case she’s needed.

“I’ve been on call since 1996,” she jokes.

Mary’s own family have benefited from maggot therapy – she has treated her husband, daughter, and son-in-law.

“When my daughter had problems with her caesarean wound, I treated it with maggots, and it healed up very quickly,” she recalls.

Mary was nominated for an MBE by her colleagues – tissue viability nurses from all over the UK.

“I feel so honoured to have been recognised in this way,” she says. “But I completely believe in what I do.

“Maggot therapy does save lives, it does salvage limbs, and it does improve a patient’s quality of life.”

Mary, who started her working life at Neath General Hospital, also won the Royal College of Nursing Nurse of the Year Award in 1997.

She is now seconded to ZooBiotic, the UK’s only supplier of pharmaceutically produced maggots to the healthcare sector.