Dame Anionwu Annual Lecture 2025

Hailed as one of the UK's greatest ever nurses, Dame Elizabeth Anionwu has had an incredible career and a monumental impact on the nursing profession. From her early days as a health visitor through to becoming the first ever sickle cell nurse specialist, she has received countless honours & awards for her work, has been made patron to many organisations, including the Sickle Cell Society, and was declared one of the 70 most influential nurses & midwives in the history of the NHS.

Although now retired, Dame Elizabeth 's recent work has focused on the impact of COVID-19 on Black & Asian Communities. She recently became a Pride of Britain awardee and one of the BBC's 100 Women of the Year 2020. Her memoir, Dreams from my Mother, was released in 2021 and was awarded the Order of Merit in 2022.

To celebrate her life achievements, LSBU's College of Health and Life Science's are proud to announce the 2025 LSBU Dame Elizabeth Anionwu Annual Lecture: Celebrating Inclusivity in Nursing & Midwifery.

This event is open to all and we look forward to welcoming you to LSBU. There will be plenty of opportunities for questions, networking & discussion with Dame Anionwu, our guest speakers and LSBU colleagues during and following the event.

The topic for the 2025 lecture is "Beating Bias - Prioritising women's heart health"

This years’ lecture will be delivered by Professor Julie Sanders RN, BSc (Hon), MSc, PhD, FESC. Julie is a cardiovascular clinical academic at King’s College London and St Bartholomew’s Hospital and was the first nursing professor in the UK specializing in cardiac surgery care. She is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), President-Elect of the ESC Association of Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions (ACNAP) and leads the Women in Cardiovascular Trials Group (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/the-women-in-cardiovascular-trials-wicvt-group).

Heart disease is the primary cause of death in women worldwide, but women are underdiagnosed, undertreated and under-researched in this area. With a particular interest in the underrepresentation of women in cardiovascular trials, Julie is committed to exploring practical ways of making cardiovascular trials more inclusive to women and to bridge the gap in evidence that is so lacking in caring for women with heart disease. The lecture will highlight the importance of women’s heart health and work being undertaken to beat the sex-bias in heart disease and in prioritizing women’s heart health.

Our lead sponsor for this event is Unison.

If you are interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at this event, please email anam.farooq@lsbu.ac.uk