My mother grew up in a poor family in a tropical island nation, the Maldives. She was orphaned when she was just two, when her mother died of typhoid. Now, I was born in Invercargill, and growing up in New Zealand I always knew I was lucky and protected from the catastrophic effects of illness. I can't ever forget that lesson, because I'm named Ayesha after my grandmother, the woman that my mother never got to know. 