Maggie Godley died peacefully at home on 24 January 2000. She was found to have disseminated ovarian cancer in October 1997, and endured extensive surgery and chemotherapy with typical no-nonsense realism and fortitude.

Maggie trained initially in obstetrics and gynaecology at Liverpool and King's, where she was regarded as one of the most promising registrars. She once said that she left the specialty because she worried all night whether her post-hysterectomy patient was going to be all right. This was not a reflection on her surgical ability, but an example of her deep concern for her patients. Her career change was a loss to gynaecology, but enabled genitourinary medicine to benefit from her considerable intelligence, expertise, and powers of organisation.

Her training in genitourinary medicine was at St Thomas's Hospital, London. She mastered the specialty rapidly, and started the department's first dedicated HIV clinic. Her research was pragmatic and useful; a good example of this is a study quantifying vaginal discharge in …