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Elizabeth Anionwu

lines on the record: 42
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Oh, thank you so much, Sir Charles. It's been an absolute pleasure. Really enjoyable because I was wondering how deep are these questions going to be. It's been fantastic. Thank you.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Friends, you know, friends can be pretty tough at times, sadly. Hold on to what they know that they are good at, what they're really interested in, and know who around them, in their family, in their school, in their peer group, wherever, who will support them when they feel down, that they have to talk to somebody when they're feeling rotten, that they don't hold on to those negative feelings inside of them. Have the confidence, first of all, who is it that they could talk to and talk to that person when they don't feel good in themselves? Don't bottle it up.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm thinking of my 13 year old granddaughter as I answer this question because we worry, don't we? They're going through totally different experience that we went. But she actually teaches me some lessons as well. And I forget that they have... Opportunities that we didn't have, and she could create her own films through her phone, for goodness sake. I mean, come on, you know. I want them to have confidence. I want them to be happy, but I also want them to know how to deal with sadness, possibly bereavement, how to deal with their parents. I'm thinking of teenagers now. And in a sense, it's also advice for the parents because it's such a two-way issue. Remembering my own experience during that phase. Think the most important thing though, I would hope that they know what they're good at whatever teachers might be saying or...”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Able to combine clinical nursing and academic work as a professor of nursing, I was still able to practice my nursing specialty, not very often, but as part of it, because I felt that that was so important. If you're teaching students, you really need to know what's going on. And you can't do that unless you practice a little bit.”
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“I had help with it, and it really did enable me to have strategies to cope when that happens again, to just remember the joy you get from your communications with patients and, of course, their families and carers. Hold on to that and just go for it. Just stay with it and also to know the opportunities for you once you have qualified are unbelievable now. Absolutely unbelievable. I mean, I would never have envisaged as that newly qualified 21-year-old nurse way back in 1968 that I would ever, for example, be able to specialise in a condition like sickle cell.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To remember what has brought you into nursing, because that will help you when you dip and you will dip emotionally and physically. First, I remember it being physical because it's tough. It's hard work. And also the range of patients that you will meet, some you will love, some you won't like so much. Don't feel embarrassed about that, internalize it a little bit, obviously, because I remember there was a particular patient who I didn't like and I did show it by avoiding the patient and the ward sister was wonderful. She called me into her office because the patient had been very difficult with me and she worked out with me how I deal with that. And some people call it the difficult patient.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And also for those where it isn't possible for them to get better, to make them comfortable. And you can never be at ease totally with an illness, but to feel that everything that can be done is being done just to enable you to cope better with whatever illness.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I'm delighted to hear that she's completed her first year of nursing studies. That is even more important because what I would say to people who realise they've chosen the right career because we have to accept sometimes when we go into a career, it may not be the career that we thought it was going to be. So for those who... Know that this is the career for them. First thing I would say would hold on to the reason that you went into nursing originally. And for most people is that they have compassion, they want to improve the quality of life for an individual who has an illness or whatever type of illness. They do want to make them feel better. And however simplistic some people say that is, I don't care because I know how I felt when I've been ill. And I know, and I remember how it then feels when I feel better.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Experience of my self published memoirs is how so much of my life has resonated with other people. It's unbelievable the mixed race issue, illegitimacy, the nursing side, oh there's so many areas that people have said, I'm so pleased you wrote about that. I'm so pleased you've talked about that when you've talked about your memoirs. And so the opportunity now with a publishing company to I just think this new version, it is a better version than the first one.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That person enabled me to talk a little bit more openly about my emotions, my emotional journey through my life, because I don't find that very easy, Sir Charles, I have to be honest. I tend to be a factual person and this happened and this happened. But what that individual did was draw out the sadness, the humour, the anger. What was it that has driven me to do this, to do that? And I don't mind talking about it. I find it very easy. Somebody asks me a question. It's not that I want to hide anything, but normally I don't sort of talk about the emotional side too much. It's just not the way I was brought up probably, but I'm happy to discuss it because I do see people have asked me lots of questions since my self-published memoirs. So I know that that is an area that interests me. And the issue that has struck me from the...”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thank you very much. Well, I do feel I'm privileged of having both the experience of self-publishing and then a publisher coming along five years later saying we actually like that. Would you be happy if we took it on and expand it? And so the first difference is it's five years on in between which I was made a dame. So but also what the publishers did was link me up with somebody and we did it through Zoom of course because of lockdown. And I had the experience of Zoom meetings two or three times a week for about three months where”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“School of Nursing in 1860 at St. Thomas's Hospital. The Crimean War was before that. Mary Secour, we think, was born in eighteen oh five. How could she have qualified as a nurse? Come on, know your history of nursing because first of all before you start the debate.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And others can actually raise her profile. And that's really what's driven me because there she is, Jamaican, Scottish, she was a woman of the empire. She was fascinated by Britain. She was British. Her father was a Scottish soldier of some sort, we don't know too much about him. But she was caring and she was funny and she was feisty and she was multi-talented in the sense of her cooking, her nursing care. She was a doctress, a bit like a GP in these days. And there are people saying, oh, but she wasn't a nurse. Hold on. And if a nurse says that to me, Sir Charles, then I will get angry because I'm saying you don't know your nursing history. Because you don't know that Florence Nightingale created the first”
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“I think great, but hold on, why didn't I know about Mary Seacole? And it just pushes you, it gives you that energy. Sometimes you get exhausted with the deficits in society and you can't take up every single issue. So that's another lesson I teach people. Choose the areas you're going to. You can't take on everything. But Mary Seacole fascinated me because she was, as you said, she was this Victorian Crimean War heroine in her own right alongside Florence Nightingale. And they both admired each other in a sense, a few differences, but it struck me, how come somebody like Mary Seacoll, who was written about incredibly in the Victorian media, how come she got lost to history? Don't dwell on that. Dwell on how I...”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think they weren't taught about it. It didn't touch them. And so what diversity brings to society is I as Irish Nigerian heritage born in London, born in Birmingham, have made my life in London now. There are issues that touch me that probably haven't touched those nurse tutors that taught me. And so I do believe we all have a duty.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She certainly did, and in fact, the two areas of my career, sickle cell and Mary Seacull. Sometimes I'll give my talks the title from sickle to seacole because it's interesting why did those two areas fascinate me so much and give me so much drive, I think, to develop areas. Neither of those were taught in my nursing curriculum. Neither of them. And that really, again, caused me to be angry, but it also made me question. Why? Why wasn't I taught about sickle cell in the late 60s in West London? It was obviously an issue, but we weren't taught about it. And why wasn't it taught about Mary Secom at a hospital where she was actually Mary Secall? I didn't know, of course, was buried a quarter of a mile away from hospital, I trained. And what it made me realise, those nurse tutors, I don't think it was deliberate.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Biographies and autobiographies. I'm curious as to how come some people who do seem to have a lot of privilege sort of fall by the wayside sometimes? Not always, just sometimes, whereas others have used that privilege in a very positive way. And how come people who have had no privileges make it? I'm just curious. I haven't got the answers to it, but I'm constantly curious about that. But also it makes me not get too complacent because that's the danger of awards I have to be honest. You really have to sort of just keep reminding yourself they're but for the grace of God myself. So I think it's this continued curiosity in life and being aware how Maybe of kindness, maybe of healthcare. Dramatically change another person's life and make their life much more comfortable, a better quality, and just to never underestimate that.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's my family and my friends and my colleagues. I'm a very nosy person. I love watching documentaries on all sorts of issues. I still have that anger in my belly. I thought it would fade as I got older. But I'm also very grateful for the life that I've had and all those role models and mentors that have helped me. I have this word rescue running through my mind when I've explored my life. Various people have rescued me, sometimes physically, but also emotionally and have seen something in me that I've not necessarily seen myself. And I'm just so, and because I read a lot and I love”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Subjected to this higher viral load and therefore the risks as we saw from the outset of the COVID pandemic of health professionals succumbing to this wretched virus. And so it really has brought home to people the value of nursing in a way that we wouldn't have wished, but that's what's happened.”
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“Even if they haven't had the illness, we're getting to the point that a lot of people know people who have had the illness and some of whom have sadly died, some of whom now have long COVID, some of whom, although recovered, it's been a very traumatic experience for that individual, never mind the families. And the use of technology to bring relatives and friends closer to that person who is ill but can't receive visitors, who is dying. I mean, the trauma of this pandemic has been horrific. And the role that nurses have played has been incredible. A, all health workers, they're on the front line.”
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“Nothing has changed dramatically since I became a qualified nurse in 1968. And the main difference for me is the degree of specialization, which has its positives, it has its negatives as well. The degree to which men have come into nursing and been much more accepted, there's still stigma and negative stereotyping of male nurses, which has to be continuously addressed. I think, not I think I know that COVID-19 has brought out into the open the value of nurses, the value of nurses, because sadly so many people in this country, us globally, look at this country, so many people have been touched by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“President Obama's first memoirs, Dreams from My Father, that he talked about belly full of anger and how he fortunately used that anger in a very positive way, I realise now on reflection, I've used my anger. So when I'm with other angry advocates saying, harness that anger into positive energy and use that energy not to, in a negative way that will destroy you and destroy your relationships and destroy your career possibly be very, very careful. Use that anger, use the energy of that anger to drive you, to find out more about this issue that you're so passionate about. And look at other issues that have been resourced. And does your issue merit the same resources? And if it doesn't, what are the reasons as to why this is still an important issue? You have to present factual data.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's an incredibly important point. But actually, it's interesting that some of those conditions, such as sickle cell disease, such as mental health, and sadly now with COVID-19 pandemic, we actually have the data that shows that they are not minority conditions. And I think that's where I've found working with health professionals who ask me, but how do you make the case? I said, well, first of all, you've got to get the facts. You cannot run on emotion. You have to have the facts. And you have to be able to put it in a public health perspective because resources are limited. Why should somebody allocate resources to this issue that you are so passionate about? Don't be in a little box. Don't get over, use your emotions. See, what I say, I've realised now that it was only when I read.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Don't be uncomfortable with the pauses. Don't be uncomfortable when they're challenging you, when they're challenging the system that you work in because of the deficits within that system. Do not take it personally because it's very easy to actually I learnt that from the United States. Do not take it personally. Rather learn from that work as equals with those who actually have the condition in terms of trying to prioritise which of the gaps do you try and address first and in what way do you do that? And also that you cannot do it on your own. These were very valuable lessons for me and lessons that I realized other people wish to learn and that helped the expansion of the services that we developed in Brent in 1979.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“See, the media took an interest in this, and that again was another lesson because I just thought this I'm a very logical person. And to me, there was a gap. I had this Person in the show, Dr. Brozovic, who was specializing in sickle cell disease, merely because when she moved to Brent discovered that there were many cases, that wasn't her expertise area. She mated her expertise. And we just worked as a team. And I love working in teams, I have to say. And what I realized was if you listen to the patients, listen to them. I mean, literally zip your lips and listen. Don't interrupt them.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I hadn't realised there were actually more cases of sickle cell anemia. And I'm thinking, well, hold on, if you compare the specialist centres for cystic fibrosis, there were none for sickle cell. There were no specialist sickle cell nurses as there were in the United States. And that's actually what gave me the idea. Hold on, because up till then I thought it was really hematologists like Dr. Brzevic, pediatricians, they're the specialists for sickle cell. Nurses didn't really have a role. Hold on, I discovered they do have a role in America. So I came back from one of my trips and spoke to Dr. Brozzvik and said, look, do you think I could play a role as I've observed in the United States? She thought that was fantastic. And she was a mentor to me. She gave me so much encouragement.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because when I explored sickle cell anemia through the experience I had in the United States, but also back in London in particular, I learned that there were more cases of sickle cell anemia in the UK than there were of cystic fibrosis. Now cystic fibrosis is an incredibly serious long-term illness and requires all the resources it's getting probably more.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we're going back now to the 1970s, particularly the mid to late 1970s, where I call this the three Ps in terms of my getting involved with sickle cell anemia. And that is personal, professional and political. And briefly, that is, after I've met my father, I discovered I had a cousin with sickle cell anemia. Professionally, I came across families with the condition as a health visitor and realised I didn't know anything about it. And politically, I met my father. I was becoming, well, I was now aware of my full identity, and particularly as a black woman in the health service. And quickly I realized that sickle cell anemia was not given the priority it merited. And actually, it also highlighted, it gave me an incredible example of health inequalities. Why do I say that?”
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“But have you actually explored it? Have you actually applied? No, I think you should do that. And it was just so straightforward in your face get on with it basically in the nicest possible way. I did that, I got onto a course. Not only did that, I got a scholarship to cover all my fees. Rang my father told him he said there you go. I told you so. He didn't say that, but he was so thrilled, as was my mother, of course, as well. And that was a huge lesson for me, which has helped me encourage other people. Because seriously, I realized I hadn't been... I hadn't had career counselling, it was straightforward as that. Yes.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How can you progress in your career? Nobody, Sir Charles, had ever, ever asked me that question. And I was actually really happy as a health visitor. I had no ambitions to go any further at that point. And my father made me actually think, well, how can you progress? And I realized it could either be teaching, clinical or research. And he said, well, which of those three areas would you feel that you could regret? And straight away teaching, I knew I was a good teacher. I enjoyed teaching. And he said, well, how do you become a teacher then in nursing? And I said, well, you go on a tutor's course. But I said, you know, dad, I don't think I'm experienced enough. And he said,”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So much so that I said to my father that I wanted to work, I wanted to move to Nigeria and work there. And he was really pleased. However, he gave me a word of warning, sat me down. He said, look. You'd be eaten alive if you came at your present state. You don't know the language. You don't know many people. Yes, you've got your family here. If you came in a much more senior position than you are now as a health visitor then, you would thoroughly enjoy Nigeria.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Said what? What in Nigeria? They said no, Parma's Green, London. That is the story in itself, honestly. Thursday I met my father for the first time. It was the most wonderful experience, as you can imagine, and I knew him for eight years before sadly he died. He was only 59 when he died. However, those eight years were brilliant. I really got to know my father. And I visited him in Nigeria when he moved back to Nigeria in 1973. He was now back in Nigeria. And I fell in love with Nigeria. The warmth, the food, the music, the people. And in a sense, it was slightly rose tinted glasses in the sense that I realized, you know, I literally had fallen in love with it. It's a bit like President Obama's experiences of when he went to Kenya for the first time, he fell in love with it. Just the embracing of the family and the feeling of acceptance.”
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“She didn't think I would find him because they'd lost contact by now. And I didn't know any Nigerians. However, I did know a Sierra Leonean barrister who had told me once that he taught Nigerian law students. So I said to, John, do you think you could find out this is now a couple of years after the Nigerian Civil War, the Biafran War? So John, do you think you could find out where this name comes from in Nigeria? That's all I wanted to know. Was my father Ibo Hauser Fulani, you know, Yoruba? That was on a Monday evening, Wednesday morning, John rang me. I've spoken to your father.”
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“Yes, certainly. To explain the context, though, was that I didn't find my father until I was nearly 25. I had my mother's Irish surname, and nobody ever spoke about my father. And as a child and as a teenager, you just know if something's not spoken about, you don't bring it up. However, when I was 24, I wrote to my mother and said, look, can you tell me something about my dad? And immediately she wrote back, gave me his name, Lawrence Odiatu Victor Anion, told me they'd met at Cambridge University, but that they didn't, their relationship didn't last.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She would use words like autumn. Now, you have to remember, I'm now in an extremely religious environment, Catholic environment. Nuns we were taught were the brides of Christ, very holy women. I did not expect a nun to use a word like bottom. And I would fall for every time, burst out laughing, for I knew it, the bandage was off. No pain whatsoever. Do you know that non, I can still picture her, I just adored her because to me she meant I wasn't going to experience any pain. And I think it was just before I left the children's home that I discovered that she was also a nurse. Now, I never wanted to be a nun. But I certainly thought nursing was for me. And I never veered from that decision. And do you know something? It was the best decision I ever made in my life.”
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“But and then they would put bandage over it. The dreaded part for me was when the bandage was taken off because by this time now the coal tar paste had dried not only onto the skin but onto that bandage. If it was not the white nun, those nuns would just seem to tear the bandage off and it was just excruciatingly painful and I would bawl my head and I was horrible. And so there's this anxiety that builds up as I'm peering around the door is the white nun there and she was generally there. Oh, I can't tell you how pleased I was. So anyway, because what she would do would be to use distraction therapy. We'd call that now.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Totally spot on, Sir Charles, because as a child, I was a regular visitor to the sick bay because of extremely severe eczema in my armpits and behind my knee. And the first thing that I would do would be to peep around the door to look and see whether it was the white man that was on duty or the black nun. Now, actually, all the nuns were white, but the white nun wore a white habit, unlike the traditional black habits that every other nun wore. Why I love that nun was that I knew that I was not.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think what helped me was the ability to play with other children, make friends with other children, that as I've said those adult nuns on the whole were friendly, pleasant and it made up for those more difficult members. Plus I never ever had a sense of rejection from my mother. She was a frequent regular visitor to the children's home. So I think looking back, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I do love watching who do you think you are, long lost family. And I see the threads that run through that for those individuals who have experienced rejection and have been traumatised by that. That has never been my experience.”
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“Should not have happened, even as a small child, I knew that this was unfair. But also it didn't cure the bed wetting. I'm actually an extremely logical person and I think I was logical child. And I knew in my, but it isn't working. Why are they doing this? Apart from that, that was a really difficult memory for me to carry on in my life. But another aspect that gradually... Dawned on me was that I wasn't the same colour as other children. And I washed my face ten times as a child to become white. It didn't work. Instead, I ended up in the sick bay. I have eczema. So those are some of the negative memories that I hold. Over”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I don't know where these nuns were taught this horrific punishment that they meted out to those of us, they would inspect the dormitory, the beds in the dormitory, and I would wake up and my heart sink because I thought, oh no, sheet would be torn off the bed. You could see that the nun was annoyed. We would have to go and stand each of us on a chair and have our urine soak sheet draped over our body. That wasn't it. The punishment was also that we had to stretch our arms outright. I mean, literally we had standing like that. And the punishment if our arms dropped, which of course they're going to do, was a nun on the other side of the sheet whacking us with something like a ruler. That is seared in my memory in terms of”
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“I love music, so Irish music, folk music has stayed with me since then. But also, again, I was chosen just a few other children to learn to play the piano. And that's been one of the biggest sorrows for me, having left the convent. I never got the opportunity to continue with that. But it has left me with a huge love of piano music and other sort of music. I think I was a child that was slightly spoilt in the convent, so it's not my narrative there is not really identical to some of the horror stories we've heard about children in care. And sadly, the hands of religious authorities as well. There were some dreadful experiences, but they... We're in the minority. They have stayed with me. I'll give you one example, which is that I was a bedwetter.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, first of all, it's wonderful to meet you, Sir Charles. Thank you very much, and I'm looking forward to our chat. Yes, I am now 74 years of age, so we're going way back to a couple of years after the Second World War, as you've said. And actually my memory of those nine years in a children's home are generally extremely happy. I was the only black child there during that period. The memorable periods were The fact that I did seem to be chosen amongst a few children to do, for example, Irish dancing, which I absolutely adored, and so much so that we would go on little tours around Stoke-on-Trent areas. And I actually won medals for my dancing.”
undated · Off The Agenda · Dame Elizabeth Anionwu: Nursing, Race & a Life of Pioneering Service | Off The Agenda | OTA Media · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source