My mother, Pamela Zinkin, who has died aged 94, was a consultant pediatrician credited with saving the lives of children around the world. She was also a lifelong campaigner for National Health Service.
In 1977, by then a single mother with two young sons, Pam moved into a new independent home. Mozambique work as a senior pediatrician and then head of the pediatric department at the Maputo Central Hospital. The country's healthcare was in a precarious state, with 80% of doctors leaving after independence in 1975. Over five years, Pam and her team reduced the mortality rate among 8,000 annual pediatric hospitalizations from 25% to 4%.
Pam's expertise in child development, disability and war was later sought after by WHO, UNICEF, the British Council and Save the Children, and she traveled around the world to help create and evaluate projects. She has also been a trustee or advisor to many charities, notably Palestinian Medical Aid, Ideals and Oxfam.
Born in LondonPam was the daughter of Mary (nee McMeekin), a typist, and Peter Zinkin, a cutter who later became a journalist. After her parents' divorce, Pam was raised by her mother and stepfather George Ives, a postman. At the outbreak of the Second World War she was evacuated to Garnant, a mining village in south Wales.
Returning to London, Pam attended Addie and Stanhope School in New Cross before attending medical school at the University of Leeds in 1951. After graduating in 1956, she worked at Great Ormond Street, Queen Charlotte's and Guy's Hospitals before becoming a senior lecturer in child health at the Institute of Child Health. HealthUniversity of London, with consultant status at Great Ormond Street.
During this time she was also involved in the anti-Vietnam War and anti-apartheid movement and later in supporting the independence struggle in Mozambique, as well as raising her sons – me from a relationship with Andre Pen, which ended before I was born, and Colin, whom she adopted as a single parent.
She took us both to Mozambique, where Pam became employee – these were experts from around the world who helped the Mozambican government fill the skills gap and train Mozambicans. In Maputo, she reorganized the medical and nursing teams and helped train a new generation of doctors. Many of her former students now hold leadership positions in Mozambique.
Returning to the UK in 1982, she worked as a consultant pediatrician at Whittington Hospital in north London before returning to her work at the Institute of Children's Health and running courses in community-based rehabilitation of disabled people and the care of children in times of war and disaster.
Pam never retired. As well as consulting work for NGOs and charities, she lobbied for the National Health Service.
She had friends of all ages, swam on Hampstead Heath, took piano and Chinese lessons when she was 90, and danced with the Company of Elders at Sadler's Wells.
Pam is survived by Colin and I and her granddaughter Emma.
