Stephen Hawking, (8th January 1942 – 14th March 2018)
A renowned inspiration, Professor Stephen Hawking is world famous for his work in science. A mathematician as well as a physicist, he was the man who came up with the ‘black hole theory’, which has improved people’s understanding of space and the origins of the universe. Not only that, he suffered from motor neurone disease since the age of 21, meaning that he could not speak or write down his theories and that makes him even more of an inspiration because most of his complex ideas were created using his mental skills alone.
Stephen was the eldest of four — he had two younger sisters (Mary and Philippa) and Edward, an adopted brother. His father — Frank — was a doctor and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps but Hawking didn’t. With his mum, Isobel, they made an eccentric family, eating their meals in silence whilst reading books. Visitors would often comment on the masses of papers scattered around the house. However, Stephen himself didn’t learn how to read until he was eight.
At school, he earned the nickname Einstein despite being one of the weakest in the class. His father wanted him to move to Westminster School but, on the day of the scholarship, he fell ill meaning he had no scholarship and ended up staying on at St. Albans school with his friends. Some say that this benefitted him because his maths teacher inspired him to become a mathematician.
In his childhood, he had had several hobbies: playing board games, making model boats and planes, and taking clocks apart to reassemble them but was often unsuccessful. However, throughout his life, he liked fireworks — making and watching them — and, on his 75thbirthday, there was a huge firework display in honour of him.
Despite not learning to read until the age of 8, he had always enjoyed maths: he had liked it so much that he wanted to go on and study it, but Frank wanted him to study medicine. Compromising, Stephen went on to Oxford University to study chemistry and physics. In 1959, he started his degree but hated it. After that, he concentrated less on his work and got a reputation as rather a joker and a daredevil who was simultaneously clever. In fact, he devoted his second year mostly to fun.
After his time at Oxford, he went on to Cambridge University to begin a PhD in cosmology. However, he struggled in the subject due to his lack of maths. Not only that, he began to struggle with everyday things: dropping items, tripping over and becoming, overall, more clumsy. He was a small man and so, when Stephen joined the rowing boat club, he had coxed the boat but even that was beginning to become a struggle. When he returned home for Christmas, his mum noticed a significant change in his behaviour and admitted him to hospital. There, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and was told he would live no longer than two years. At the time, he was 21.
Due to the shocking news, Hawking found it difficult to work, losing hope on his dreams. However, the man soon realised that his disease was slowing, meaning he might live more than two years. This filled him with hope once again and Stephen decided to go back to work, making the most of what he had left.
Just before he had been diagnosed, he met Jane Wilde, who was the most positive force in his life. Against her family’s advice, they got engaged in October 1964 and later were married and had three children Lucy, Tim and Robert. His wife loved him and he loved her but he was reluctant to accept help and even when he began to struggle with walking, he refused a wheelchair as long as possible.
As the illness worsened, the scientist learned that he couldn’t write and he became more frustrated by his limitations especially since in the 1960s and 1970s there was little technology to support him. Luckily though, he was a theoretical physicist rather than practical. As a result of this, he could still think through his work but it is still amazing as he couldn’t write down his thoughts.
In 1985, he visited CERN in Geneva, Switzerland and contracted pneumonia. He had two options: a life-support machine or a treatment that would enable him to breathe but he would never be able to speak again. Immediately his wife had refused the life- support machine, meaning that he would never speak again. A tube was inserted into his neck to replace his airway and he got a computerised speech synthesiser. Although, when he had passed away, it was said that he most regretted not being able to play with his children, he would often give them rides on his wheelchair and sometimes they would type swear words into their dad’s voice machine, joking being in their genes!
Since he was such an inspirational person, Stephen journeyed around the world and met many people like Nelson Mandela, Obama and H.M. the Queen. He also starred in many television shows and cartoons – Star Trek, The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons and Comic Relief. To add to that, he opened the 2012 Paralympics.
Throughout his life, he had adored his space but, due to his illness, he couldn’t ever go to space himself and so, after being in a wheelchair for 40 years, he went on the ‘Vomit Comet’, which was a space simulator. Later on in life, he also wrote a children’s space book with his daughter Lucy.
Yet again because of his disease, he didn’t have much time with his wife and so they divorced. He then remarried one of the nurses but described their relationship as volatile. However, shortly before his death, he regained contact with Jane his first wife.
However unfortunate we thought he was, Stephen described himself as lucky and not only because he was the longest-lived motor neurone disease sufferer, but also because he was able to have the technology that he had. As a matter of fact, he became an ambassador for the disease. Most astonishingly, in the last years of his life, he could only move one muscle in his right cheek (which he used to control his computer) meaning he could only smile and use one eyebrow.