Lisa Potts


Lisa Webb GM is a former nursery teacher noted for saving school children's lives from a machete attack on 8 July 1996.
The attack was made at St Luke's Primary School in Blakenhall, Wolverhampton, England, by a man with severe paranoid schizophrenia.
Potts' arm was almost severed in the attack, in which four children were also injured. Potts, who was 21 years old at the time, also suffered severe cuts to her head, back, and to both arms. In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II presented Potts with the George Medal. Her attacker, Horrett Campbell, was sentenced to indefinite detention in a secure mental hospital.
Potts suffered severe scarring, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She was awarded £68,000 compensation more than four years after the attack. The compensation was widely criticised as inadequate, especially by comparison with high libel awards. Potts subsequently worked as a counsellor and, in 2001, founded a charity, Believe To Achieve, based in schools in Wolverhampton. The charity aims to encourage independence and to increase self-esteem in children.
Potts published an autobiography entitled Behind the Smile in 1998. A foreword was contributed by Cherie Blair. Potts went on to study a degree in Counselling in 2004. She has two sons. In 2010 Potts retrained as an Adult Nurse at Wolverhampton University and then went on to become a specialist Public Health Nurse.

Books by Lisa Potts