I live in Canada and have only just heard that Jennifer had died. She was my sister-in-law while I was married to her brother Andrew. She welcomed me warmly into her family and we got on well. I greatly admired her dedication to her profession, her patients and her music. I continued to visit her for many years and although I hadn't seen her for some time, we exchanged occasional emails and I knew I could always visit her when I went to the UK. She was a special person and I'm happy to have met her. Jean Whieldon, Fallbrook, Ontario, Canada.

Jenny was a much valued colleague and friend of my late husband Dr Peter Mackie, Haematologist at Wexham Park Hospital. She was a friend of mine who I got to know through the Windsor Medical Society, especially on the International Meetings. She shared a love of music making, mainly through the Medical Society, with Peter and myself. She will be much missed by me. Joanna Mackie

Sophie Christiansen MSci CBE was one of the SCBU babies (born at 32 weeks with multiple challenges) mentioned in an early post to this site. She is now nearly 33, and we owe her life to the skill of Jenny Cowan and her team of nurses at Heatherwood Hospital. There is now a ward named after Sophie in the Trust’s sister hospital, Wexham Park. (Jenny was present at the opening of it.) You can find out about Sophie’s life here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Christiansen, or https://www.sophiechristiansen.co.uk, but here are a few extra memories of Jenny: On one of the occasions when Sophie was close to death, Jenny had to have “the talk” with us about whether we wanted Sophie’s life to be saved at all costs, or whether we’d like nature to take its course (with some medical input for pain etc., of course). Jenny put this carefully, saying that she would ultimately take the responsibility for judging, as far as she could from her experience, what sort of quality of life Sophie might have if she survived. We think you’ll agree that Sophie has had some “quality of life” so far! Jenny was “shared” as consultant at that point between Heatherwood and Wexham Park, and when she was at one hospital, she’d call SCBU at the other to find out about “her” babies. Our respect for her grew when we somehow came to know that, if a nurse answered one of these calls and said, “Would you like to speak to the doctor on duty?”, Jenny would decline and say she’d rather hear about the babies from those professionals closest to them 24/7 – the nurses themselves. Not only did she trust nurses, she trusted parents, too, even those for whom this might be their first baby, like us. She knew, despite having had none of her own children, that there was an instinct between parent and child. Indeed, Sophie’s Dad noticed a change in her one morning that had been missed by the night shift, as it had come on slowly overnight, but as soon as he pointed it out, it was acted upon, which saved Sophie from septicaemia. Jenny remained Sophie’s paediatric consultant for several years, through her diagnosis of cerebral palsy, and guided us through periods of questioning about, for example, Sophie’s inability to control her saliva, whether she’d ever walk, and how best to help her. Jenny’s stance was generally non-interventionist, and we’re glad we did not put Sophie through endless operations to reverse her salivary glands, rearrange her leg muscles etc. In the end, Sophie figured out a coping mechanism for most of her challenges by herself, as Jenny knew she would. We were most touched when Sophie’s brother Alex arrived, 3 years later, at the same hospital, but in much less urgent circumstances. Nurses from SCBU came to visit him within minutes of his birth before they went off shift, and Jenny came up to the maternity ward (which I had never reached the first time – being put in a single room as my baby wasn’t with me), to greet him and check him over for us after she’d officially finished work. More proof of how much she cared for “her” babies and their families. We were glad to have kept in touch with Jenny over the years so that she could watch Sophie grow up, get her degree, earn gold medals for her country… Caroline and Karl Christiansen