Three inspirational women that changed the charity sector

It’s International Women’s Day, a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women around the world.

To mark it, we’re highlighting the stories of three incredible women whose dedication to humanitarianism inspired the work of some of the UKs best known charities.

1.      Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910) 

Born in Italy in 1820, Florence Nightingale demonstrated a desire to help others from a young age, dedicating her time to helping the sick and poor in her village.

By the age of 16, she knew nursing was her divine calling and proceeded to study nursing at the renowned Institute of Protestant Deaconesses, in Germany.

She excelled as a student and went on to become superintendent of a hospital for ‘gentlewomen’ in Harley Street, London.

But it was her work in Crimea that catapulted Nightingale and her methods to fame.

In reaction to the public outcry over the poor treatment of wounded British soldiers, the British Secretary of State for War wrote to Nightingale and asked her to lead a group of nurses to tend to the troops. By this time, Nightingale had a formidable reputation as a gifted nurse.

Nightingale travelled to the army hospital in Scutari (modern day Istanbul) and was appalled at the conditions she found.

She secured funds to purchase the supplies she needed to implement drastic changes and improvements to care, treatment, and hygiene.

Her efforts reduced mortality rates from 42% to 2%.

In addition to organising the new hospital regime and training other nurses, she tended to patients. Admired for the unwavering compassion she showed her patients, she earned the nickname ‘the Lady of the Lamp’.

Post-Crimea

When the war ended, Nightingale returned to England a heroine.

She went on to fund the Nightingale Training School of Nursing and Midwifery which continues to train aspiring nurses today as part of King’s College London.

Legacy

Florence Nightingale established the principles of patient care, health, and hygiene that exist today and is widely regarded as the founder of modern nursing.

Her work inspired the founding of the International Red Cross, which still awards the Florence Nightingale Medal for outstanding services to nurses in her name.

2.   Marie Curie (1867 – 1934)

An icon in the world of modern science, Marie Curie was born in Poland, but moved to Paris, aged 24 to study physics, chemistry, and mathematics.

It was here that she met her future husband and colleague, physicist Pierre Curie.

The couple bonded over their research into magnetism but soon branched out into radioactivity, a field so new that Curie named it herself.

The duo made huge breakthroughs in understanding radiation, including the discovery of two elements: polonium, named after Curie’s native Poland, and radium, named for its potent radioactivity.

Their discoveries and studies in radioactivity transformed medical science, leading to the development of X-rays and various cancer treatments.

Scientists soon recognised the importance of this work, and Marie Curie became the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize, in 1903.

Frontline

When World War I broke out, Marie realised that X-ray technology could play an important role in the care of wounded soldiers, and raised money to develop a fleet of mobile radiology labs that could transport X-ray technology to the battlefront.

Determined to alleviate suffering on the frontline, she taught herself to drive, learned about human anatomy and X-ray machine operation, and drove to the battlefront, where she treated wounded soldiers for the duration of the war.

Tragically, Marie succumbed to leukaemia after decades of radiation exposure, but her charitable legacy and pioneering invention live on through the charity that carries her name.

3.   Sue Ryder (1924 – 2000)

Sue Ryder was a Yorkshire-born humanitarian who dedicated her life to the relief of suffering.

Aged sixteen, she volunteered to be a nurse with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry when WW2 broke out.

She was accepted and posted to the Polish section of the Special Operations Executive, a secret organisation established to promote and co-ordinate resistance activity in German-occupied Europe.

After the war, she volunteered to do relief work in Poland, staying on when United Nations relief groups pulled out in 1951. 

Her duties took her into concentration camps, where she met survivors of the Nazis' atrocities, and jails, where she comforted Poles that had been imprisoned for committing offences born of hunger or desperation.

She thought nothing of driving hundreds of miles to see a displaced person who needed help.

The following year, back in England, with only £1,000 from her personal savings, she converted her mother's old home into a care home for sick and injured survivors of the concentration camps and the Sue Ryder Foundation was born.

She went on to establish homes and domiciliary care teams for the sick and disabled across the world.

Her eponymous charity continues today, providing expert care to people at the end of their lives, both in their homes and at seven specialist Marie Curie centres.

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