Nurse who inspired Live Aid reflects on ‘horrendous situation’

A nurse is marking 40 years since the moment her work in Ethiopia became the inspiration for a worldwide musical fundraising drive.

Dame Claire Bertschinger, who lives in Crewkerne, Somerset, appeared in a BBC news report in 1985 while caring for starving children. It prompted musicians Bob Geldof, George Michael and Sting to record the charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?.

The number one record was followed in 1985 by the Live Aid concerts at London’s Wembley Stadium and in the US, which raised more than £114m for famine relief.

But it was not until 20 years after the report first aired that Dame Claire realised the role she had played.

While working in Ethiopia, she was faced with “heartbreaking” choices, where she had to pick 70 children out of 1,000 and decide who would be offered food.

“It was a horrendous situation. People were starving, not just children. They were skin and bones,” she said.

“They needed food and there was insufficient food to go around.”