Tears and pride at posthumous award ceremony

Her husband said the University played a key role in engendering her love of such research, with unusual consequences for the family. He said, “UEL and her lecturers sparked in Donna a life-long passion for medical research and its advancement – so much so she didn’t hesitate to put herself and her family members forwards for any medical trials that could advance science.”

After five years she moved on to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, where she worked on research aimed at boosting the immune systems of babies born with HIV/AIDS. It was gruelling but vital work, with the efforts of researchers like Ms Coote one of the reasons why mother-to-child transmission of HIV has now been almost totally eliminated.

After three years at St Mary’s she gave up her laboratory career to look after her growing family. She and Mr Stephens – characteristically she always used her maiden name professionally – had three daughters. With them grown up she returned to work, taking up a post with Professor Iain Hutchison’s research foundation, Saving Faces. It specialises in facial reconstruction after cancer, trauma or birth defects, with Ms Coote given the difficult task of selecting which patients would be treated. She took to her work with courage and gusto. Professor Hutchinson’s wife, the lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, said, “Donna became the heart and soul of the team and was greatly loved.”

She went on to be employed at the Anthony Nolan Trust, a charity devoted to helping those battling blood cancers, travelling the country to collect bone marrow – a return to the type of work she’d done all those years ago at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She carried on working, even after she was diagnosed with cancer.

Baroness Kennedy told of how her friend coped with being told she had the illness. She said, “It is hard to think of anyone dealing with a terminal diagnosis of cancer with such grace and strength of purpose. Never complaining. Taking each blow with such courage and determination; squeezing as much happiness as she could out of whatever time was left to her.”

That time was, for her family, far too short. But Mr Stephens said today’s ceremony at least gave them the chance to hear how appreciated she was at the University that gave her a love of scientific research. More personally the honorary doctorate awarded to Ms Coote, he said, marks the conclusion to a story that began more than 40 years ago in the University. He said, “We've come to the end of our journey together again at UEL, and this was a kind of marker for that. Both me and my daughters, who were here today, found that incredibly moving and important to give us closure.”