Mildred Scheel

Mildred Scheel, born Mildred Wirtz in Cologne in 1931, was a German physician who is remembered as the founder of the German Cancer Aid. The daughter of a radiologist, she studied medicine in Munich, Innsbruck and Regensburg and worked in hospitals and medical practices before marrying the politician Walter Scheel in 1969. When he became Federal President in 1974 she chose public health as her role as first lady and set up the German Cancer Aid that year, financed by public donations with no tax money and no pharmaceutical industry gifts. She spoke openly about cancer at a time when it was a social taboo, and she convened international conferences of cancer experts. She died of cancer in Cologne in 1985.