Clare Davies (nee Stannard)

Dr Clare Stannard spent her professional life at UCT and Red Cross, helping young patients battle the very toughest cancers — and still somehow keeping the rest of us feeling ashamed of our lesser excuses for not getting things done.Her research and radiotherapy work became standard-setting — she has left deep footprints in paediatric oncology… and very fast parallel ski-tracks.

Long before it was fashionable to say “we ski in the Western Cape”, Clare was one of the mad pioneers who actually did — carving turns on Matroosberg when most people still thought that was only a rumour.

Today she remains exactly the same high-voltage spark she always was — the original “ball of energy” who laughs easily, chats enthusiastically, and somehow makes everything sound like an adventure.

You will probably find her with a smile, a mischievous one-liner, and perhaps quietly plotting her next slope — even if it’s metaphorical now… though we’re not sure she’s given up on the real ones.