Elizabeth Anionwu: 2nd July

 Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu OM DBE FRCN (born Elizabeth Mary Furlong in 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[1] 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 and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). 

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 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. 

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

She retired in 2007, In 2005, she  wrote, A Short History of Mary Seacole and in 2016 published her memoirs, Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union.