Former Chief Minister of Anguilla, Sir Emile Gumbs, just back from heart surgery in England, says he is grateful to many persons on the island who in various ways offered him their best wishes before and after his treatment.

Sir Emile Gumbs

Sir Emile, 79, said: “I would like to offer my appreciation and thanks to all who expressed their concern and inquired about me. Some called all the way to England and many others called here since I came back. It is very heartening and I think it is really helping me to feel better. It has been a very traumatic and psychological time. It has given me a lift to see and hear people expressing concern about me and saying they are praying for me.”

Sir Emile, accompanied by Lady Gumbs, went to Atlanta for a check up and spent about a week there before travelling to England for the surgery. “I got the same surgeon (Dr. Stephen Edmondson) who did the first operation eleven years ago, but at a different hospital” he reported. This time he was operated on at Wellington Hospital in St. John’s Wood in London. “It’s next door to Lords Cricket Ground,” said the avid cricketer admitting that while he was able to view the area from a top floor, no matches were being played at the time much to his dismay.

“It is just incredible what they can do,” he said, reflecting on the delicate and complex nature of the operation.

He was away from Anguilla for two months and is now recuperating well.
Sir Emile served as the Elected Representative for Road North for some 27 years. Of that period he held the appointment as Chief Minister of Anguilla for thirteen years.

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