Claire Bertschinger, the nurse who was the catalyst for a global cultural phenomenon

Working as a young nurse in a remote feeding station in famine-torn Ethiopia, and facing the impossible daily decision of which of the thousands of starving children to save, Claire, the winner of the 2005 Women of the Year Window on the World Award, never imagined the impact the interview she gave to BBC reporter Michael Buerk would have. Becoming the trigger for the iconic Band Aid single Feed the World and the Live Aid concert that followed it, may have radically improved the appalling suffering of the Ethiopians Claire was caring for, but it had less welcome ramifications for the young nurse when she returned to the UK. 

Claire, who was made a Dame in 2010 for services to nursing and international humanitarian aid, talks about memories of her time in Ethiopia and why she couldn’t wait to get rid of “the annoying bloke from the BBC”; what she did afterwards to process her experiences in the country; why she returned there 20 years later and reveals how receiving our 2005 Window on the World Award prompted her to reflect on her work and how others perceived it.