My friend and colleague Felicia Cox, who has died aged 60, was an inspirational nurse leader who carried out pioneering work in pain management. She was editor in chief of the British Journal of Pain for more than a decade and a founder member of the Pain Nurse Network, which was originally for UK nurses and is now international.
Known to all as Flick, she was born in Launceston, Tasmania, the eldest of the five children of Junetta (nee Keep), an office worker, and Berkley Cox, a well-known Australian Rules footballer who played for Carlton in Victoria. As a young girl, Flick was given a nurse’s uniform – a white dress, red cape and nun-type headdress, which she took to wearing around the house. She eventually followed in the footsteps of her glamorous Aunt Suzanne, who was a senior nurse.
After attending Broadlands House girls’ grammar school and training at Launceston general hospital, Flick moved to London in 1990 for a job at Harefield hospital as a theatre nurse. There she met Dr John Farrimond, an anaesthetist who became her devoted partner for the rest of her life. She remarked later that falling in love with an Englishman during an Ashes series had been challenging for a proud Australian. John and Flick worked together at Harefield with eminent surgeons such as Magdi Yacoub.
Flick transferred to pain management in 1997, and it was in this area that she had an enormous impact on the nursing profession. When Harefield became part of the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust in 1998, she became the lead for the pain service at both sites. For the Royal College of Nursing, she created a knowledge and skills framework, setting out for the first time the skills required for nurses, from novice to expert, who worked in pain management.
At a European level, she helped put together a curriculum for nurses with this specialism, and conducted the first exams in 2024, providing European nurses with a recognised qualification in pain management. She also carried out pioneering work on the international stage on the safe use of opioids after surgery, producing a leaflet for surgical patients to help them to manage their pain.
Flick received the rare honour of being elected a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing. The British Pain Society awarded her its medal of distinction in 2025 – one of only five recipients in its 50-year history, and the only nurse. Her achievements came despite suffering serious illness for the last 20 years of her life, including two forms of cancer that led to a stem cell transplant in 2005. She commissioned chapters for the book Perioperative Pain Management (2008) while in protective isolation for 90 days prior to her transplant.
Flick was celebrated among her hundreds of friends and colleagues throughout the world for her generosity, empathy, mischievous sense of humour and her style – she was instantly recognisable with her Prada handbag and red Chanel lipstick.
She is survived by John, and her sisters, Jennifer, Sarah and Lynda, and brother, Stuart, and her Aunt Suzanne.
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