Professor Dame Carol Black given Freedom of the Borough

Born in Barwell, Dame Carol attended Dixie Grammar School in Market Bosworth and paid tribute to headmaster William Golding for his encouragement and belief in a ‘rebellious’ child.

Thanks to him she pursued a university education, being the first in her family to do so. She became a specialist in rheumatology and an international expert on the disease scleroderma.

Dame Carol has enjoyed a distinguished medical career, for which she received a damehood in 2005. In 2024 she was awarded a Dame Grand Cross (GBE), the highest accolade in the British honours system.

In a speech during the meeting, she said: "Throughout my life, I have liked the impossible questions and the impossible tasks. As a young doctor, one night I admitted a young woman with scleroderma and (subsequently) kidney disease, she was in for kidney failure.

"All night we failed to get her blood pressure under control. On the ward round the next day, I asked the professor what we were to do because we failed all night. He said 'Carol, she'll be dead in three weeks' time and there's nothing you can do'. And I thought, 'it can't be like that. There must be something we can do'.

"Over the next 35 years, we did do something about it, now people don't die so frequently, and they certainly don't die of kidney disease. Although we don't extend everybody's life for 20 years, for most people we extend it for at least 10, and for many people we control it."

Dame Carol has also dedicated much of her career to another of her passions, the relationship between work and health, and has advised the British government on this. She has also held the post of President of the Royal College of Physicians (2002-2006) and was Principal of Newham College, Cambridge (2012-2019).

She said: "I'm passionately keen that people should be able to make the most of their lives, and that they should be able to grow to whatever point it is they want to grow to. Good work is really crucial to that, and good mental health."

Cllr Stuart Bray, Leader of the Borough Council, said: "We can all take great pride in all Dame Carol has achieved and continues to achieve. We thank her for her work across so many areas and for being a great role model to people in Hinckley and Bosworth.

"This is only the second time the Freedom of the Borough has been awarded in Hinckley and Bosworth, and the first since it was given to the Rural Anglian Regiment in 1977.

"I would also like to place on record my thanks to Greg Drozdz for nominating Professor Dame Carol Black for this honour."