On 3 October 2025 we lost Lisa Kauffmann, a paediatrician who was quiet, self-effacing, and never made herself the centre of attention – and yet she was extraordinary, both as a leader and a clinician, and influenced so many lives.
Lisa was a medical student in London, and trained in paediatrics in London and Manchester before becoming a full convert to the North-West, and taking up a consultant post in community child health in Manchester in 1995.
It was as a paediatric registrar at Booth Hall, working for Tim David who recently described her as ‘overflowing with positive qualities’, that she met Judith Ellis, who was the ward sister. From the beginning Lisa unhesitatingly gave of her time to enthusiastically help with every hairbrained scheme – children’s parties galore, custard pie fights with adolescents, and forfeiting weeks of holiday to provide medical cover for children’s dream trips to Centre Parc, Disney etc. It was during one such trip that Lisa learned that female doctors should probably not do chest physio in pyjamas with a male audience. When Judith became a ‘homeless’ student in London, Lisa arranged her southern adoption by the whole Kauffman family, and they became lifelong friends.
Lisa’s early experience with children with life limiting and medically complex conditions was to shape the rest of her clinical career. After specialising in community paediatrics, she developed an interest in children with severe disability, and subsequently in paediatric palliative care.
In 2004 she joined the Manchester Children’s Palliative Care Team (known as the Star Team) and with her nurse colleague Lis Meates worked to establish a palliative care service at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. They then went on to form the Greater Manchester Palliative Care Network, professionals united to raise awareness and to improve care for children with palliative needs. Lis said of her “Some of my fondest memories are of the deep, meaningful conversations we had in our office, always over coffee and biscuits. Though I must admit, Lisa subverted what she deemed to be my inadequate coffee-making skills by making her own! She had a wonderful sense of humour and was always up for a bit of silliness with the team. I’ll never forget the comfort of knowing she was always at the end of the phone, even in the middle of the night, when we were supporting a family through the loss of their child.”
Lisa was passionate about the impact of communication on the experience of care for patients and their families and on the resilience and wellbeing of staff, and with another nurse friend, Nicki Fitzmaurice, she set up Reach Communication. One participant said, “she taught so many of us the power of silence, the importance of listening, and the value of not rushing to fix what can’t be fixed. She helped us empower families to express their hopes, even in the hardest moments.”
Alongside her clinical career, Lisa managed to juggle equally important leadership roles. She was Associate Clinical Head of Division for integrated community children’s services at Manchester University Hospitals NHSFT and was the clinical governance lead for the Greater Manchester paediatric network. She played a key role in the design and implementation of the ‘Making it Better’ project to redesign maternity and paediatric services in the area.
On the back of her management experience, she became one of the early chairs of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) Clinical Directors’ Group. This small acorn grew into Paediatricians in Medical Management Committee and finally the RCPCH Health Services Committee, which now advises on national health policies and standards for children and young people, and provides advice on service improvements for children’s health services.
While chairing the Clinical Directors’ Group, Lisa met Hilary Cass. After Hilary became RCPCH President she managed to blag Lisa into standing – successfully! – for several more management roles; most significantly RCPCH Treasurer, where Lisa was often the quiet voice of common sense who brought resolution to debates in a room of noisy people. When Hilary became Chair of the British Academy of Childhood Disability (BACD), Lisa became Chair of the British Association for Community Child Health (BACCH), giving even more opportunities for joint working.
After Lisa retired, Hilary’s continuing nagging led to Lisa becoming Co-Chair of Co-Lab (a group committed to working together to improve the healthcare of children with medical complexity and their families), and most recently Chair of Together for Short Lives, the national children’s palliative care charity. She made a powerful impression, even on those who knew her for a relatively short time. Hannah Nicholson, a young consultant and key member of the CoLab executive said; “She has left her mark of positivity and kindness on me. She gently but firmly encouraged me and helped me with my imposter syndrome and reminded me that I could manage…even with newborn twins. I didn’t know Lisa for long, but I really miss her. I will miss her replies to my messages and miss sharing with her pics of my brood growing up. I will miss her positivity and passion for improving our communication. She was wonderful.”
As a more fun post-retirement project Lisa, Judith and Hilary formed themselves into the Three Witches, going away for regular weekends around the United Kingdom. They were accompanied by Lisa’s timid standard poodle Arthur, rescued from a drug den in Scotland since which time he never learnt to bark, and Judith’s rumbustious Portuguese Water dog Pedro. Unbeknownst to Judith, Hilary and Lisa would have a quiet laugh about the fact that Judith could control a ward full of children and families, and indeed paediatricians, but couldn’t stop Pedro snatching cake off Lisa and Hilary’s plates. In line with Lisa’s clinical philosophy, the trips were full of silliness, Judith and Hilary avoiding the extensive mountain climbs and walks so beloved by Lisa and concentrating instead on testing out hot tubs in forest lodges, and doing local treasure hunts designed for 10-year-olds (which required the additional skills of Lisa’s adult daughter Kate).
Throughout the two years of her illness with ovarian cancer, Lisa was rarely interested in talking about her symptoms which she deemed ‘too boring’ but approached her impending death with extraordinary courage and equanimity. She died peacefully in St Ann’s Hospice in Manchester, surrounded by her beloved family; her sister Juliet and her three children she was rightly so proud of Kate, Ben and Jack.
Lisa was and always will be someone we are so proud was our friend.
