I am so shocked to hear of the death of such a young and vivacious character. I worked with Maria on the Nolan case as her expert Microbiologist witness and on a number of other travel related cases. I enjoyed it all so much. She was a sharp-minded lawyer and, coupled with her great experience, she was always forensic in her opinion and always worth listening to. She headed up a team of excellent lawyers and, although I am sure they must be very devastated, they will continue to maintain that degree of excellence that Maria exemplified. Such was my respect for her that, whilst under cross examination in the Nolan case, I was very perturbed by her dead-pan face until she explained to me afterwards that judges take a dim view of lawyers who give any sort of 'thumbs up' to witnesses whilst giving evidence! She was a kind and generous woman and I was delighted to accept her invitations to speak at conferences on norovirus in the cruise industry. She always looked after me as an invited speaker and she was very generous in giving my daughter a 2 week work experience attachment when she was embarking on her legal career. Good night Maria. I will always be thankful to have met you. Love Peter X