Heather Margaret Dukes was a general surgeon, paediatrician and general practitioner. She was born Heather Margaret Starkie in Hyde, Cheshire on 4 September 1942. Her father, Colin Starkie, was medical officer of health for Kidderminster; her mother was Margaret Joyce Starkie née Wrigley. She was educated at the Knoll School, Kidderminster, and then Kidderminster High School. In 1960, she started studying medicine at Birmingham University, qualifying in 1965. Immediately after qualifying, she went to Rhodesia, where she worked in junior posts in the professorial units at the University of Rhodesia. She developed skills in vascular access surgery and helped to start central Africa's first renal unit. In 1969, she returned to the UK, to Coventry and then as a resident surgical officer at the Children's Hospital in Birmingham. She took a break from work while her children were young, and then retrained in paediatrics. In 1981, she was appointed as Coventry's principal medical officer for child health. She later retrained and became a general practitioner, founding the Anchor Centre, providing primary healthcare for the homeless and for refugees. In 1964, she married David Dukes. They had four children and five grandchildren. Heather Margaret Dukes died on 20 September 2014 from angiosarcoma. She was 72.