After 29 years of needing a machine to clean her blood three times every week, Bermuda?s longest living dialysis patient has died at the age of 59.

Ingrid Bailey, of St. George?s, started dialysis in March 1978. However, she never complained about losing her kidneys and fulfilled her dreams of meeting her grandchildren and watching her daughter graduate from college because of her faith, her son Philip Bailey said.

?By the time (dialysis) was finished she was spent, her body had gone through a lot, so you can imagine doing that for about 30 years,? he said last Friday. ?She went to the Salvation Army church in St. George?s where she taught Sunday school.

?It gave her the will to live to see her children blossom into adults.

?She wanted to see her children graduate from primary school, not knowing if she would ever even see her children graduate from high school. That was always a worry on her.?

However, he was thankful a dialysis machine was able to keep her body alive after she lost the use of both kidneys due to a rare disease ? not diabetes.

?When she started they didn?t even have a dialysis unit, actually she was in ICU,? he said. ?She never complained. The whole dialysis unit loves her and she was well known in the hospital. She just had such a lifting, motivating spirit that encouraged other patients to just live. Everybody loved her.

He said her family was devastated at her passing last Wednesday.

?To actually lose her is hard to accept,? he said. ?But she accomplished a lot through a lot of adversity. My children loved her to death, they called her an angel.?

The example of Mrs. Bailey?s life would hopefully show the ability to triumph despite early adversities, he said. Mr. Bailey wanted to thank the Lady Cubitt Compassionate Association (LCCA) for flying his mother out for expensive treatments.

?They stepped in when needed to send her away for different types of treatments,? he said.

?Even on Sunday they flew her out to Boston to the Brigham and Women?s Hospital. Just like that they stepped in and we were able to fly her out just to try and see what they can do.?

He also wanted to thank the staff of the Dr. Beresford Swan Dialysis Unit of the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Staff member of the Unit from 1986 to 2005, Richard Smith said Mrs. Bailey was a fighter.

?She was a very private person and very close with her brothers and sisters,? Mr. Bailey said.

?She was a fighter. She had a few bouts when she was very, very low. A number of times we thought we would have lost her but she was really a fighter.?

When Mr. Smith met Mrs. Bailey in 1986 in his first day at work she asked him how he enjoyed working at the Unit.

?I said ?right now I am just scratching the surface?,? he said. ?She sat up and said ?you?re what?? ? in the sense of what are you doing here??

He said Mrs. Bailey was a very strong, unassuming but very much in control of herself.

?I don?t think another patient had as much knowledge about her condition of kidney failure as she did,? he said.

?She was right on top of what she had to do. There is a sense of gratitude of having known her. She was an extremely warm person.?