Elizabeth Anionwu

Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu was born Elizabeth Mary Furlong in Birmingham,[3] England, to an Irish mother and a Nigerian father. Her mother, Mary Maureen Furlong, was in her second year studying classics at Newnham College, Cambridge University.[4] Her father, Lawrence Odiatu Victor Anionwu, was studying law at Cambridge University.[5]

Her upbringing had been heavily affected by moving between institutions and family. She spent just over two years living with her mother, a relationship that ended when her stepfather, who did not accept her and drank heavily, started to physically abuse her. She was placed in a Catholic children's home where she was cared for by nuns, including several years in the Nazareth House convent in Birmingham.[4][6]

Often harshly punished and humiliated for wetting the bed, she remembers being made to stand with a urine-soaked sheet over her head as a punishment for wetting the bed. In the book she recalls, that later in life when working as a health visitor, "I made sure to keep up-to-date with more humane treatments for bedwetting". Nonetheless, she grieved leaving the convent to go and live with her mother. Every period of relative stability in childhood ended in sudden collapse. Following an unsettled childhood she qualified as a nurse, then health visitor. Shortly before her 25th birthday she suddenly found her father: barrister and former Nigerian Ambassador to Italy and the Vatican, Lawrence Anionwu. She was to visit Nigeria frequently and later changed her surname to Anionwu.[4]

Anionwu has credited her father, Lawrence Anionwu, a barrister and diplomat, as the first person to provide her with career advice. Anionwu has one child, her daughter Azuka Oforka, an actress (in the BBC One medical drama series Casualty).[7]

Anionwu began her nursing career inspired by a nun who cared for her eczema.[8] At the age of 16, she left school with seven O-levels and started to work as a school nurse assistant in Wolverhampton.[9] She continued with education to become a nurse, health visitor, and tutor. She travelled to the United States to study counselling for sickle-cell and thalassemia centres as courses were not then available in the UK. In 1979 she worked with Dr Milica Brozovic to create the first UK sickle-cell and thalassemia counselling centre in London Borough of Brent. This was the first of over 30 centres in the UK using the Brent Centre as a model.

In 1990 she was a lecturer at the Institute of Child Health, University College London, later promoted to senior lecturer.[10] With the help of Professor Marcus Pembrey, Anionwu taught a course at University College London for National Health Service (NHS) staff members who worked with communities affected or at risk of sickle-cell disease, cystic fibrosis, Tay–Sachs disease and thalassaemia.

Plaque of the ward named after Mary Seacole in Whittington Hospital in north London.

Anionwu was appointed dean of the School of Adult Nursing Studies and Professor of Nursing at University of West London. Here she created the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at the University of West London, retiring in 2007. In 2001, Anionwu, along with Professor Atkin, wrote The Politics of Sickle Cell and Thalassemia. In 2005, she wrote, A Short History of Mary Seacole. In 2003 she became a Trustee and subsequently vice-chairperson of the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal. Following the unveiling of the statue at St Thomas' Hospital in June 2016 she was appointed a Life Patron of the Mary Seacole Trust.[9]

Anionwu is also a Patron of other charities:[11]

• Sickle Cell Society
• Nigerian Nurses Charitable Association UK
• Vice President of Unite/Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association
• Honorary Advisor to England's Chief Nursing Officer's Black & Minority Ethnic Strategic Advisory Group

In 2016, she published the first edition of her memoirs called Mixed Blessing from a Cambridge Union (ISBN 978-0-9955268-0-8).[12] In 2021 her updated memoirs ‘’Dreams From My Mother’’ were published by Seven Dials, an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group.[13][14]

Anionwu was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2001 Birthday Honours for her services to nursing.[15] In 2004 she was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing (FRCN) for developing the sickle-cell and thalassemia counselling centre.[16] In 2007, following her retirement, she was appointed Emeritus Professor for Nursing at the University of West London.[17]

In 2010 she was inducted into the Nursing Times Nursing Hall of Fame for the dedication to the Development of Nurse-led Services.[1] She also received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award on Divas of Colour. Anionwu was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to nursing and the Mary Seacole Statue Appeal.[18] Anionwu was awarded a Fellowship of the Queen's Nursing Institute in October 2017.[19]

In 2019, in recognition of Anionwu's major contribution to nursing, research and campaigning, the University of St Andrews conferred on her the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.[20] Also in 2019 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University, in recognition of her major contribution to the nursing profession.[21]

At the Pride of Britain Awards in October 2019, Anionwu received the Lifetime Achievement Award, "in recognition of her passion for nursing and dedication to reducing health inequalities",[22][23] the presentation being made Janet Jackson.[24][25]

On 31 May 2020 Anionwu was the subject of an episode of Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4.[9] She was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women (BBC) announced later that year on 23 November.[26]

She was made a member of the Order of Merit in 2022.[27]

In May 2023, she carried the Sovereign's Orb in the Royal procession at the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla.[28]

• Official website
• "Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu" Archived 2020-09-29 at the Wayback Machine @ NHS Curator Archive
• "Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu", Women in the Humanities (WiH), Oxford University.