Remembering Jennifer Bourne - FGM specialist

I end 2025 with news that a very good friend Jennifer Bourne sadly passed away earlier this month.  Such a tragic loss not only to all her family and friends, but also the nursing community.  I've been able to reflect on what Jenny's friendship and also her knowledge and skill meant to me and the wider travel medicine community.  

THE START OF JENNY'S CAREER AS AN FGM SPECIALIST

Jenny's career as a nurse working in the field of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) started back in October 1999 when she became a Clinical Nurse Specialist in FGM at Waltham Forest PCT in London, a role she fulfilled for over 10 years.  This involved working with girls and women who experienced or were at risk of FGM.  The team developed the service to include youth and community work, working within schools and providing a specialist clinical service.  This was recognised in Europe as a model of good practice and they won several awards including an Innovative and Creative Practice Award with the Queens Nursing Institute (QNI now named the QICN).  Jenny attended the European Parliament twice to share the work with the EU Network Against FGM.  She also visited Somaliland with others from the UK to see the work being done to stop FGM.  In 2001, she went to New York with a UK delegation to attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. 

A move to Cornwall in 2013, led Jenny to achieve training, knowledge and counselling skills as an independent sexual violence adviser providing support to female and male victims of sexual violence.  During those four years, Jenny was also part of a working group for the UK Department of Health looking at providing a care pathway and guidance for health visitors, midwives and school nurses, working with women and children where violence may be present.    

Jenny then spent 10 years from 2004 to 2014 in education, providing specialist training to all agencies around FGM and other forms of gender-based violence.  This included specialist training to support professionals working with victims of sexual and domestic violence.  

MY CONNECTION WITH JENNY

I didn't meet Jenny until early 2015, by which time she was in the role of Project Manager and FGM Safeguarding Lead at the Department of Health and NHS England.  I recall going to visit her for the first time in the Department of Health, which was situated in one of their offices at the Elephant and Castle site.

Jenny in her leadership role with the Department of Health and NHS England

By this time she was stoically commuting between London and Cornwall for work.  We hit it off immediately, and I had the great fortune of becoming a friend over the last ten years.  

INTRODUCTION OF FGM TO THE TRAVEL MEDICINE COMMUNITY

Our first meeting was to ask her to speak at a travel health conference I was arranging in collaboration with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in London.  At that time, although there was a growing body of guidance for healthcare workers around FGM, there was nothing at all for the travel medicine community, yet as practitioners, the travel clinic would be a key area of care where we could potentially identify young girls being taken abroad for the purpose of FGM.  If you'd like to see Jenny's presentation slides from that time click this link.  From here, Jenny approached the RCN and the Women's Health Lead, Carmel Bagness, who embraced the idea of developing a guidance publication on FGM and Travel Health Services, which was first published in 2016, with significant help and input from Jenny, travel health specialist nurses and the RCN.  

I also asked Jenny to speak at the Faculty of Travel Medicine Annual Symposium at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG), together with her friend and colleague Leyla Hussein who is an anti-FGM campaigner and psychotherapist.  This was in October 2016, the session was so powerful, it ignited and opened the eyes of many travel medicine practitioners and from this point, our role in education started. To see the programme click here and to watch the incredible lecture click here.  (Thanks to the College for allowing access to this link). 

Jenny and Leyla speaking at the RCPSG

The following year an e learning course specifically for travel medicine practitioners was developed by a group of travel health specialist nurses, made available on the RCPSG digital store and has been used by practitioners on a regular basis since its launch in 2018 - not only in the UK, but around the world.  An article was also written for travel medicine practitioners by Ann McDonald - see here.   

I have personally spoken at international conferences on the subject as well to broaden the necessary reach of knowledge, (here's an example) and I give credit to Jenny for teaching me so much and enabling many of us to spread the importance of FGM awareness in the travel medicine community on a global scale.  

I know Jenny was so proud to be a Queen's Nurse and you can read an article about her career on the QICN website here.  This provides more extensive information about her career journey, including her trips to Kenya in 2018 and 2019.  She was also very sad to give up her nursing career, proud she had followed in her mother's footsteps and has two beautiful granddaughters who have also taken up the profession.  

A second trip to Kenya in 2019, this time accompanied by one of her granddaughters.  

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

I wanted to share the impact Jenny made, not just to my life, but many of my travel medicine nursing friends and colleagues and how grateful we are for the time that we knew her.  I wish it had been longer, but her courage, kindness, skill and generosity to share knowledge lives on in travel health, which can only help to add to the fight against FGM in the world. 

My thoughts and love go out to Simon, Jenny's husband and ALL her family.