Tears and pride at posthumous award ceremony
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Published
23 January 2024
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It was an emotional moment for the family of Donna Coote. As the citation was read for her -honorary doctorate in health sciences, her husband, Mark Stephens CBE, could be seen wiping tears away. Ms Coote’s death from cancer in 2020 robbed her of the chance to receive her award in person, but speaking afterwards Mr Stephens said she might not have entirely welcomed the spotlight. He said,
I think Donna would've been slightly embarrassed at the fuss because she never liked to celebrate her own achievements, she always wanted to celebrate other peoples, but I think it was absolutely right.”
Those achievements are richly deserving of commemoration, even if Ms Coote herself might have been abashed at the praise. Born and raised in Jamaica, she graduated from the University of East London (UEL) with a BSc in Immunology. By then she’d already met her future husband, a fellow UEL student. After graduation she soon began work at Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Institute of Child Health under Professor Roland Lavinsky, a world leader in the field of immunodeficiency diseases.
While at Great Ormond Street, she helped refine the methods of matching and transplanting bone marrow for sick children, with operation days often lasting from 6am until midnight.
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.”