I first got to know Betty because she was my patient. I operated upon her in 2004 to solve a problem she’d had for a while. We weren’t really in contact after that until we set up the David Nott Foundation in 2015. We had an opening event for it at the Royal College of Surgeons and Betty came along to that. She took me to one side and said: “David, I really think this is a very, very good idea, and I’d like to help you a lot.” She contacted me shortly afterwards and liked the idea of being our patron. She was absolutely fantastic, instrumental in giving me and my wife, Elly, who is the chief executive of the foundation, direction on all sorts of things.
One thing about Betty was that she was invariably right. And she really got the foundation, what we were trying to do – which is to give the best surgical training to doctors on the frontline of wars and conflicts, so they can then do the best for their patients. Betty loved the idea of this big family of doctors and nurses around the world talking to one another, supporting one another. She said that being patron of that was the best thing she could imagine doing at that stage of her life. One of the best things she did as patron was to introduce us to Baroness Frances D’Souza, who was the first chair of trustees at the foundation and who led our board with diligence and warmth. We were so lucky to have her.
