Jean Gaffin was an inspired choice as Chair of our new Patient Liaison Committee in 2001. This was a new British Pain Society Committee and one that was potentially fraught with some concerns. We should never have worried.

Jean had previously been Chief Executive of Arthritis Care – a voluntary organisation for people with arthritis with over 60,000 members, 120 staff and a budget of over £5 million. She was appalled at the pain endured by people with arthritis. In 1991 she became Executive Director of the National Council for Hospice and Specialist Palliative Care Services. In this post, she was immediately impressed by how pain was managed. The contrast was stark. This emphasised to her that pain could be better controlled if it was the focus of energy and practice and set her on the road to apply for the British Pain Society’s committee.

Jean has always been involved with public service, both in paid and voluntary employment. She obtained an MSc in Social Administration from the London School of Economics and held academic posts in Social Policy and Administration. She became Organising Secretary for the Child Accident Prevention Committee and, from 1982 to 1987, the Executive Secretary for the British Paediatric Association (now the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health). She maintained her interest in children as Trustee of the National Children’s Centre in Huddersfield.

Jean’s major contribution has been in the public and voluntary sectors. She was Honorary Treasurer for the Parliamentary Council on Transport Safety, introducing seat-belt legislation. She was a member of the Department of Health Working Group on Guidelines for Admission into and Discharge from Intensive Care and High Dependency Units, the UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority, the National Service Framework for Older People Task Force Group, Acute Hospital Care of Older People and Palliative Care, the Technology Appraisal Committee of NICE, the CJD Incident panel and the steering Group of the National Comparative Audit of Blood Transfusion.

She was Chair of the Advisory Committee on Telecommunications for Elderly People. She maintained her interest in palliative care by being the Chairman of the Brent and Harrow Health Authority Palliative Care Strategy Group and a Trustee of St Luke’s Hospice in Harrow. She has been a Non-Executive Director and Acting Chair of Harrow and Hillingdon NHS Healthcare Trust and is currently Chair of Brent Teaching Primary Care Trust. Given her interest in society, it is not surprising that she is a Magistrate.

We are not the first organisation to honour Jean. She has been Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society of Medicine. She was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine - both significant accolades that recognise her massive contribution to these specialties.

Sitting with Jean in the RSM is rather like sitting with royalty. Various well-known establishment figures are delighted to stop and say hello and to learn what she is doing at this time. Her significant contacts within Parliament have opened major doors to the British Pain Society and for this we should be extremely grateful. Above all, her fantastic enthusiasm, drive and energy to improve the management of pain is astounding. Her capacity to see where better pain management can inculcate itself into Government and Department of Health White Papers, Green Papers and pronouncements is astonishing. Her intellect is sharp and she cuts through waffle quickly. She sets high standards in personal performance and demands meticulous planning for events in which she participates.

Jean has been an inspiration to me personally. She has a diplomatic manner, listens to all views, puts forward the rounded patient view, and then suggests solutions that are mutually agreed as they are so logical. She is a great achiever in her field. Health care has been the better for her significant contribution over many years.

I am proud that the British Pain Society offers her Honorary Membership.

Dr Beverly Collett