Elizabeth Anionwu

Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu (born Elizabeth Mary Furlong; 2 July 1947) is a British nurse, health care administrator, lecturer, and emeritus professor of Nursing at the University of West London.

In 1979, Anionwu became the United Kingdom's first sickle-cell and thalassemia nurse specialist, helping establish the Brent Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Counselling centre with consultant haematologist Milica Brozovic. In 1998, by then a professor of nursing, Anionwu created the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at the University of West London. She holds the Order of Merit, was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). She retired in 2007, and in 2016 she published her memoirs, Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union.

Early life Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu was born Elizabeth Mary Furlong in Birmingham, to an Irish mother and a Nigerian father. Her mother, Mary Maureen Furlong, was in her second year studying classics at Newnham College, Cambridge.

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.

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.

Family Anionwu has credited her father, Lawrence Anionwu, a barrister and diplomat, as the first person to provide her with career advice. Anionwu has a daughter, the actress Azuka Oforka.

Career

Anionwu began her nursing career inspired by a nursing nun who cared for her eczema at the age of four. At the age of 16, she left school with seven O-levels and started to work as a school nurse assistant in Wolverhampton. 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 nurse-led UK sickle-cell and thalassemia screening and counselling centre in London Borough of Brent. In 2021, her updated memoir, Dreams From My Mother, was published by Seven Dials, an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group. In her book, she reveals the many layers of her life, from a childhood marked by hidden truths to uncovering her father's identity, experiencing a political awakening, and emerging as a leader in Black health advocacy. She sheds light on the profound health disparities affecting ethnic communities, spanning issues from sickle cell disease to the inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

In 2010 she was inducted into the Nursing Times Nursing Hall of Fame for the dedication to the Development of Nurse-led Services. Anionwu was awarded a Fellowship of the Queen's Nursing Institute in October 2017.

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. Also in 2019 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University, in recognition of her major contribution to the nursing profession.

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", the presentation being made Janet Jackson.

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

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

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