Deborah was one of my first mentors and inspirational women that I looked up to in health protection. She made juggling work and family life look easy. She had a real breadth and depth of technical knowledge and expertise and came to life under pressure, leading outbreaks and incident response. Always calm, thoughtful and hard working, she led by example. I learned so much from her and am so grateful for her help and guidance in my formative years in public health. When I moved to the national team I always knew that if I rang Deborah about an issue we were having in London she would be able to sort it without much fuss or fanfare. I will truly miss here, a great loss to public health in London.