Quick Facts
Biography
Deborah Louise Bone MBE (10 January 1963 – 30 December 2014) was an award-winning British mental health nurse and the subject of the Pulp song "Disco 2000", written by her close friend Jarvis Cocker.
Early years
Bone was born in Sheffield. England, where her mother was friends with the mother of Jarvis Cocker, later a founder member of Pulp. When Bone was 10, her family moved to Letchworth, but she and Cocker remained friends.
At the age of 16, she began volunteering at Fairfield Hospital in Stotfold.
She was the subject of Cocker's song "Disco 2000", released in 1995, in which he sang:
Our mothers said we could be sister and brother. Your name is Deborah. Deborah. It never suited ya.
Cocker performed the song at her 50th birthday party.
Career
Bone qualified as a mental health nurse, eventually working for Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust as a service manager for early intervention and adolescent mental health service. While there, she set up their 'Step2 health' service.
It was announced in the 2015 New Year's honours list that she had been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for "her services to children’s mental health".
Death
Bone was affected by the bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma. She died at home on 30 December 2014, the day her MBE was announced, and was survived by her husband Colin and daughters, Pollyanna (who also works for the National Health Service) and Jem, and a grandson, with a granddaughter on the way.