Prof Gita Naidu is the head of Paediatric Oncology, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, the academic head of Paediatric Oncology at the University of the Witwatersrand, chair of the South African Association of Paediatric Haematology Oncology and the co-chair of the sub-Saharan Africa Region, St Jude Global. Her Ph.D. was supervised by Professor Shabir Madhi on infectious complications in children treated for cancer. She teaches under- and post-graduate students, and fellows and has supervised numerous post-graduate theses. She is also on the boards of CHOC Foundation SA, Reach for a Dream, and Kids Kicking Cancer. Various research projects keep her busy including infections in children with cancer, febrile neutropenia guidelines, antimicrobial stewardship, treatment abandonment, and nutrition. Her special interests are leukaemia, lymphoma, AIDS-related malignancies, and retinoblastoma. She is the associate editor of the South African Journal of Oncology, editor of the South African Journal of Child Health, collaborates on various global clinical trials, is a member of the global retinoblastoma advisory board, a member of IDORI, University of the Witwatersrand, and is writing the national cancer care plan for children and adolescents with cancer in South Africa.