Remembering Behnaz Mozakka

It is with great sadness that we remember our colleague who was killed in the attack on the Piccadilly line tube train on 7 July 2005. Behnaz Mozakka will be sorely missed by her friends and colleagues in the hospital. Our thoughts and condolences have also been sent to her bereaved family.

Nazy, as Behnaz was known, joined GOSH in 1998 and worked as a biomedical scientist in the chemical pathology laboratory. She was hard working, conscientious, and very popular with all of her colleagues. Paying tribute, Ros, her friend and colleague in chemical pathology said at the funeral:

"It's incomprehensible what has happened to Nazy, and I feel sad for myself and the others at work. But this sadness of ours can't compare with the unimaginable grief that her family must be feeling - because we all know that, as important as work was for Nazy, nothing was as important as her family.

"Nazy was one of those people who we all liked to work with. She was conscientious, hard working and punctual, and was cheerful and positive.

"As in the rest of her life as I knew her, she was completely organised and careful in her approach to work. She was determined to do a good job, and wouldn't give up until she'd done it in the way she felt it should be done. She made light of everyday work problems just by being herself - giving a humourous comment and that cheeky smile. Nazy was the counsellor and advisor on all sorts of matters at work to so many people. Sometimes it seemed like she was too involved in other people's business, was too much of a mother. But if Nazy told you to sit up straight, you did. If you didn't, she would poke you in the back. She was interested in people, tolerant in a way that would make her try to understand what motivated people to do what they did, rather than judging them.

"The last time I saw Nazy, I did what we always did for each other. I took her the piece of birthday cake I had saved for her from the coffee bar earlier in the day; and she was smiling."