Ann Ward

Ann Ward was a devoted and a humble Roman Catholic nun. She was a dedicated, kind hearted, and skilful gynaecologist, obstetrician, and surgeon. And—according to those who knew and loved her—she was also very tough.

For nearly half a century, starting in 1959 as a member of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, Sister Ann cared for thousands of teenage girls and women in Nigeria. She helped pioneer surgery to repair the debilitating condition of obstetric fistula, which is caused by prolonged obstructed labour resulting in a hole between the rectum and vagina (rectovaginal fistula) or a hole between the bladder and vagina (vesicovaginal fistula). Women with the condition are often young—some are barely teenagers—and are presented by their families to older men as third or fourth wives when their bodies are not yet fully developed for childbirth.