Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu PhD, CBE, FRCN is an Irish and Nigerian woman who was born in the United Kingdom. She is a nurse, health visitor, tutor, lecturer, and professor. She contributed to opening the first sickle cell and thalassemia counseling centre in the UK. She also helped create the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at University of West London. Anionwu retired 2007.

Early life

Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu was born Elizabeth Mary Furlong on July 2, 1947 in Birmingham United Kingdom."BME Trailblazers in the NHS Professor Elizabeth Anionwu CBE." NHS Employers. NHS Employers, Aug. 2012. Web. Oct. 2016.She was the child of an unmarried 20-year-old English middle-class Catholic girl with Irish roots. Mary Furlong was academically brilliant. She had won a scholarship to Cambridge to study classics and was in her second year when she fell pregnant by a Nigerian law student. The stigma of having a mixed raced, illegitimate child reduced her opportunity to attend Cambridge. Her mother, there was some effort to resume her studies through correspondences with the Catholic church and University. However she decided to give up Cambridge and look for a job in order to provide for her daughter and herself. Her father, Lawrence Odiatu Victor Anionwu, was Nigerian. Her parents met while attending classes at Newham College in Cambridge. After an unsettled childhood and estrangement from her father she visited Nigeria. Her trip influenced to take on her father’s name "An Extraordinary Life: Elizabeth Anionwu." RCNi. N.p., 2 Oct. 2016. Web. Oct. 2016.

Elizabeth Anionwu's upbringing was heavily affected by moving between institutions and family; she spent just over two years living with her mother. It ended with her mother when her stepfather, who didn't accept her and drank heavily, attacked her. For much of her childhood she was cared for by nuns, including several years in the Nazareth House convent in Birmingham. Often being 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’". She also remembers sobbing her heart out on the bus when she had to leave the convent to go and live with her mother. Every period of relative stability in childhood ended in sudden collapse.^[1]

Family

Anionwu has credited her father, a barrister and diplomat, as a career inspiration.^[2] Anionwu has one daughter who is an actress in the BBC TV Series called Casualty.

Career

Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu has a PhD, a CBE, and a FRCN^[3]

Elizabeth began her nursing career at a very young age after being inspired by a nun who cared for her eczema. At the age of 16 she started to work as a school nurse assistant in Wolverhampton.^[4] Later on in life she moved forward with her education to become a nurse, health visitor, and tutor. She is ultimately thankful that her father pushed her to pursue and progress more in her career. She also traveled to the US to study counseling for sickle cell and thalassemia centers and courses were not available in the UK.^[5] In 1979 Elizabeth worked with Dr. Brozovic to create the first UK Sickle Cell and Thalassemia counseling centre in Brent.^[6] The opening of this counseling center pioneered the opening of over 30 centers in the UK using the Brent location as a basis.^[7] In 1990 at the Institute of Child Health, University College London she advanced academically to a lecturer and then later to a senior lecturer. With the help of Professor Marcus Pembrey, Elizabeth taught a course at the University College London that was for NHS staff members who worked with communities affected or at risk of sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis. She then became the Dean of the School of Adult Nursing Studies and a Professor of Nursing at University of West London. Elizabeth eventually created the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at University of West London. She was the Head/Vice Chairperson until her retirement in 2007. She wishes to bring more attention to Mary Seacole. In 2001, Elizabeth, along with Professor Atkin, wrote the book “The Politics of Sickle Cell and Thalassemia.” Elizabeth then wrote a book called “A Short History of Mary Seacole” in 2005.

She is a member and patron of multiple committees:^[8]

• Sickle Cell Society
• Nigerian Nurses Charitable Association UK
• Vice President of Unite/Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association
• Editorial Advisory Board of Nursing Standard
• NHS Sickle Cell & Thalassemia Screening Program Steering Group
• Honorary Advisor to the Chief Nursing Officer’s Black & Minority Ethnic Advisory Group
• Life patron of The Mary Seacole Trust

In 2007 Elizabeth decided that it was her time to retire. However, she remains active in the nursing community and overlooks many projects.^[9]

• The development of caring for people with sickle cell disease and thalassemia syndromes: A framework for nursing staff.
• Understanding the contribution of sickle cell and thalassemia specialist nurses.

Publications

Throughout the course of Elizabeth’s career she had published many pieces of works. Elizabeth has written and published a memoir called “ Mixed Blessing from a Cambridge Union."^[10] She has also published works related to her field of work and study in many journals. She has written informative pamphlets for family members of a sickle cell patient, nurses who care for sickle cell patients, and information for the general population.^[11]

• 1977: Self Help in Sickle Cell Anaemia.
• 1978: Sickle Cell Menace in the Blood.
• 1981: Learning to cope with Sickle Cell Disease - A Parent's Experience.
• 1982: Sickle Cell Disease.
• 1983: Sickle Cell Disease: Screening & counseling in the antenatal and neonatal period.
• 1984: Sickle cell disease in Britain.
• 1985: Pain Perception in Sickle Cell Crisis.
• 1986: Sickle Cell Disease - A guide for families.
• 1988: Counseling for Prenatal Diagnosis of Sickle Cell Disease and Beta Thalassemia Major. A four year experience.
• 1989: Training of counsellors on sickle cell disorders in Africa.
• 1991: Teaching Community Genetics.
• 1992: Sickle Cell Disorders in Schoolchildren.
• 1993: Genetics - A Philosophy of Perfection?
• 1994: Women and sickle cell disorders.
• 1996: Neonatal screening for sickle cell disorders: what about the carrier infants?
• 1997: Haemoglobinopathies.
• 1998: Health Needs Assessment: Genetic Services.
• 1999: In the Shadow of the Lamp. The story of the Crimea’s Unsung Nursing Heroine.
• 2000: In the Melting Pot.
• 2001: Screening and Genetic Counseling in Sickle Cell Disease.
• 2002: Leg ulcers and sickle cell disorders.
• 2003: It’s time for a statue of Mary Seacole.
• 2004: Nursing input is crucial to genetics policy.
• 2005: A short history of Mary Seacole: a resource for nurses and students.
• 2006: Sickle Cell Disease in Pregnancy.
• 2007: Making my mark.
• 2008: Sickle cell disease: quality of care needs to improve within the NHS.
• 2009: Sickle Cell Disease in on the increase and nurses need to be aware.
• 2012: Mary Seacole: nursing care in many lands.
• 2013: Scotching three myths about Mary Seacole.
• 2014: Modeling the Complex Activity of Sickle Cell and Thalassemia Specialist Nurses in England.

Awards

In 2001 Elizabeth was awarded a CBE by Prince Charles for her dedication and services to nursing. In 2004 she was awarded the Fellowship Of the Royal College of Nursing (FRCN) for developing the sickle cell and thalassemia counseling centre. In 2007, following her retirement, she was awarded with Emeritus Professor for Nursing at the University of West London. In 2010 Elizabeth was inducted into the Nursing Times Nursing Hall of Fame for the dedication to the Development of Nurse-led Services. She also received the Lifetime Achievement Award on Divas of Colour of 2015.

References