Lisa Potts

{{Short description|British crime victim and writer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Lisa Webb

| honorific_suffix = GM

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = Lisa Potts

| birth_date =

| birth_place = Wolverhampton, England

| death_date =

| death_place =

| other_names =

| occupation = Former nursery teacher

| known_for = Defending children in her care from a machete attack

}}

Lisa Webb GM (née Potts) is a former nursery teacher. On 8 July 1996, her class at St Luke's Primary School in Blakenhall, Wolverhampton, England, was attacked by a man with severe paranoid schizophrenia wielding a machete.

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2006/07/07/lisa_potts_10_years_on_feature.shtml |title=Lisa Potts: ten years on |last1=McCarthy |first1=Jules |date=7 July 2006 |publisher=BBC Birmingham |accessdate=27 June 2023 |url-status= }} In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II presented Potts with the George Medal.{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/30883.stm |title=Nursery nurse honoured for bravery |date=13 November 1997 |publisher=BBC News |accessdate=27 June 2023 |url-status= }} Her attacker, Horrett Campbell, was sentenced to indefinite detention in a secure mental hospital.{{cite news|title=Machete man sent to secure mental hospital|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/machete-man-sent-to-secure-mental-hospital-1271603.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/machete-man-sent-to-secure-mental-hospital-1271603.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|accessdate=5 August 2012 | location=London|work=The Independent|date=1997-03-08}}

Potts suffered severe scarring, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She was awarded £68,000 compensation more than four years after the attack.{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1156116.stm

|title=On this Day 1996: Guilty verdict on school machete attacker | publisher=BBC News | date=2001-02-06 | accessdate=2010-01-05}}{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/8/newsid_2496000/2496685.stm | title=On this Day 1996: Seven slashed in school machete attack | publisher=BBC News | date=1996-07-08 | accessdate=2010-01-05}} The compensation was widely criticised as inadequate, especially by comparison with high libel awards.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10022.asp |title=Our Nation's Future:Tackling exclusion head-on |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629045806/http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10022.asp |archivedate=29 June 2007 }}

Potts published an autobiography entitled Behind the Smile in 1998. A foreword was contributed by Cherie Blair.Potts, Lisa Behind the Smile: My story by Lisa Potts (1998) Hodder & Stoughton, London {{ISBN|0-340-72148-0}} Potts went on to study a degree in counselling in 2004. In 2010 she retrained as a nurse at Wolverhampton University and then went on to become a specialist public health nurse.{{cite web|last1=Woods|first1=Rebecca|title=Injured nurse 'forgives' machete attacker|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-36670689|publisher=BBC News|accessdate=13 February 2018|date=5 July 2016}}

Earlier in 2022 Potts was made the first Freewoman of the City of Wolverhampton. On 24 July 2022, she participated in the Queen's Baton Relay marking the 2022 Commonwealth Games when it visited Wolverhampton.{{cite news|title=The Queen's Baton Relay (sub-story Hero teacher in baton honour for city leg of relay|work=Shropshire Star|date=20 July 2022|page=7}}At time of the report going to press the Baton was due to arrive in Wolverhampton on Sunday 24 June 2022.