The sports star has been appointed as an ambassador to the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal

OLYMPIC GOLD medal winner and broadcaster Denise Lewis has been appointed as an ambassador to the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal to help raise the final £70,000 for the campaign.

She is the latest celebrity to join the appeal, which is raising money to erect a statue of Scottish/Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole in London this autumn.

Lewis, whose grandmother was a nurse, won a gold medal for Great Britain in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. 

Commenting on her appointment, Lewis said: “To be asked to become an ambassador for the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal is a great honour. 

“My beloved grandmother worked tirelessly in nursing and eventually passed away in the same hospital that she had worked in for 40 years.”

She continued: “Mary Seacole was a pioneer for women like my grandma who ventured into the unknown and dedicated their lives to helping others. A statue of Mary would be a fitting way to recognise her legacy and the contribution she made to our society. The next generation of black women need to know her story.”

In 1855 Mary Seacole travelled to the Crimea where she set up the British Hotel to provide meals for soldiers as well as a dispensary for those who were sick or wounded, and also nursed them on and off the battlefields. 

She was voted Greatest Black Briton in a 2004 online poll, and was included in the National Curriculum after 36,000 people signed a petition against her possible exclusion in 2013.

The statue, the first to a named black woman in the UK, is due to be unveiled in the grounds of London’s renowned St Thomas’ Hospital in the autumn.

Total cost of the project is around £500,000. All but £70,000 has been achieved through donations from thousands of individual supporters as well as several larger donors. 

The site, facing the Houses of Parliament, has been provided for use by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Former athlete Denise is fronting the appeal’s Last Lap Just Giving campaign on Facebook and Twitter in a bid to raise the remaining £70,000 and provide funding for a legacy programme.

Actors, comedians, musicians, nurses and other health service leaders are among the ambassadors who have supported the appeal since it was launched in November 2003.