Sunila Chotai, wife of Bharat Chotai, director of Kamsons Pharmacy, passed away on Sunday in a hospital near Brighton after losing her brave battle against cancer. She was 62 and is survived by Bharat and their two children Rikesh and Raakhi.
In a message, the family said Sunila died “peacefully in the presence of her family on May 1” at Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.
Born in Jinja, Uganda, Sunila was among the tens of thousands of Ugandan Indians who came to England in the 70s to escape persecution from military dictator Idi Amin.
She worked as a pharmacist in community and hospital settings and as an inspector of healthcare premises for the Care Quality Commission at one point.
Ravi Vaitha, prescribing lead pharmacist and senior manager for Kamsons Pharmacy, commented: “Suni was an amazing pharmacist with a great range of knowledge and experience. She lit up any room she walked into. She had the amazing talent of making everyone feel important and will be greatly missed by all who knew her.”
Sunila also undertook voluntary work with the Brighton Hindu Temple and until a few weeks ago was still helping at the Brighton Street Kitchen, a group working to help the homeless community.
She married Bharat, who, along with brothers Bipin and Piyoosh, founded the family-owned pharmacy chain in 1979 in Uckfield, East Sussex where the first Kamsons Pharmacy was opened. In just over four decades, the company has now grown to 80 pharmacies and employs over 1,000 people.
Piyoosh Chotai sadly died in January 2020 at the age of 69.
