Tribute to Concha

Dear colleagues!

On April 9th 2011 Concha Colomer died suddenly and she has not only left a great sadness but also a great legacy for health promotion behind her.

I am sure you will agree that it is significantly poignant and terribly sad that we mourn the loss of a great woman, a great public health professional and a truly great friend in Concha Colomer.

I met Concha for the first time in Gothenburg 1990 at the beginnings of the European Training Consortium in Health Promotion (ETC). This was a great start of something incredible for health promotion in Europe but for me too, as I started on my own 20-year journey in health promotion. I can genuinely say that without her this initiative to set up an innovative training network to support Strategies for Health in Europe and the worldwide new health promotion movement guided by the well-known Ottawa Charta would not have happened. Concha hosted the first ETC summer course in IVESP Valencia in 1991. Actually Zagreb was selected as the first venue but the civil war and the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia was happening at this time. Concha stepped in and Valencia was the city for the launch of this spectacular resource, now in its 20th year. Concha also hosted the Summer Course in 1993 and again in 2002; the latter was a key milestone for ETC because of the significant achievement of a partnership with EUMAHP, to strengthen the European Dimension of Health Promotion through common efforts that still exist.

Making things happen was one of Concha's great professional abilities. She was always looking for opportunities and new ways for cooperative and collaborative working across Universities, organisations and countries. As a qualified social paediatrician she held a particular interest in the field of health promotion and was committed to improving the quality of life and well being of people in Europe.

From the beginning – Europe was her focus – this is evident from the great number and range of activities she has initiated and developed within the WHO Region of Europe and DG Sanco of the European Commission. There are many examples of key milestones in the history of health promotion where Concha has influenced projects to strengthen the process of capacity building in the field of Public Health and Health Promotion. The annual ETC Summer Course is a legacy to Concha and her colleagues and friends within ETC.

This year we are going to celebrate our 20th Anniversary of ETC Summer Courses in Zagreb. Concha was invited and she was very much looking forward to joining our Symposium about Twenty Years of Capacity Building in Health Promotion – ETC-PHHP Experiences and Future Strategies. The message from April 9 about her sudden death shocked all of us. We miss her and it is a great loss. But she will always be with us. As a result, ETC is pleased to announce the launch of the 'Concha Colomer Award' for innovative learning strategies and approaches within health promotion education and training, in her honour and remembrance.

Concha was an open-minded and always encouraging and particularly strong Spanish woman, hard working but also very much enjoying life. Her full grace appeared on the dance floor when she was dancing Flamenco with Carlos her husband. What a splendid Señora!

God bless her!

Klaus D. Plümer