Obituary of Lea Milligan | charity

My friend and colleague Lea Milligan, who has died unexpectedly aged 38, spent her career working for charities. He was passionate about improving the lives of others, and especially about getting people the health care they deserved, whether he was helping to provide surgical care in West Africa through his work at the international development organization Mercy Ships, or later as CEO of MQ Mental. Health Research, where he facilitated groundbreaking research into a variety of conditions and treatments.

Through Mercy Ships, he joined a team that in 2018 co-founded the Harvard Center for Global Surgery Evaluation, which seeks to increase access to surgical care and inform surgery policy on a global scale. As part of this project, he oversaw the launch of a British Medical Journal Supplement on safe surgical access that has already saved countless lives.

The son of Charly Milligan, a shipwright, and Joanna Wisner, a civil servant, Lea was born in Glasgow. The family moved to Joanna’s native Northern Ireland when Lea was still a child and went to school at Foyle College in Derry. In 2003, he turned down a university position to volunteer for the YFC (Youth for Christ) organization in 2003, working with young criminals in prison. He stayed in the charity sector, quickly rising to take on his first CEO role, with Mercy Ships, at the age of 30. He took up his most recent position, as CEO at MQ, in 2020.

A sports enthusiast, Lea supported Ireland in rugby, Europe in golf, and England in cricket, which she went to see at every opportunity (usually accompanied by a pint). He was at home in any situation, conversing with politicians in Westminster, addressing Oxbridge professors or playing Lego with his two sons, Jesse and Joel, to whom he was devoted. Lea had a passion for people and life that was contagious.

The tall man from Northern Ireland with a booming voice and quick wit was usually the center of attention, whether at work, on the golf course, or at home with friends and the family in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. Lea will be remembered as a funny, kind-hearted man, generous with his time and advice, who mentored many of the current and future leaders of the charity sector.

Lea had many mantras that she lived by: “If you have my back, I’ll have yours,” “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” and, perhaps most importantly, “You do.”

He is survived by his partner, Amba Swain, by Jesse and Joel, the children from his marriage with Jennifer Seager, which ended in divorce, and from his parents and his brother, Andy.