Wellcome Trust Director pays tribute to Nelson Mandela

Image courtesy of South Africa The Good News  CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

As the world remembers the life of Nelson Mandela, who passed away yesterday at the age of 95, Wellcome Trust Director Jeremy Farrar shared these words with staff and the wider Wellcome Trust community: 

I am sure that many of you have been saddened, as I was, by the news last night of Nelson Mandela’s death. The world has lost one of its greatest leaders. President Mandela was more than a towering political figure: he was also an inspiration – to me personally, and I am sure to many if not all of you. His courage, perseverance and humility, and above all his capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation, offer an example to us all. He changed us all.

The Wellcome Trust is extremely proud to support research in South Africa, which makes an important contribution to understanding the health issues that most affect the nation that President Mandela built. Kevin Moses and Simon Kay, indeed, are today visiting the Africa Centre in KwaZulu-Natal. Our colleagues in South Africa are an important part of the Wellcome Trust family, and I am sure they will be in all of our thoughts today, as we join them in mourning President Mandela’s death and celebrating his life.

Jeremy Farrar