When Helen Lester gave the James Mackenzie lecture last November she knew that her life was nearing its end. But typifying the woman and her approach to her work, always wanting to do more and different things, she rose to the occasion in her inimitable, compelling manner.
Helen was born on 17 November 1961 and graduated in 1985 from the University of Wales in Cardiff, where she met her much loved and loving husband, Huw, tellingly winning medical school prizes in both psychiatry and general practice. She completed her training in South Glamorgan with a distinction in the MRCGP and the Syntex prize for her research project: a sign of things to come. She joined the Lee Bank Group Practice in 1991, developing its undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and creating a service …