[3] Balfour may have been driven to pursue a medical career as a result, and she was described as having 'extraordinary determination and intelligence' and 'the iron hand within the velvet glove if she wanted something she would persist'[4] at a time when few woman studied medicine.
[5] At the same time, Balfour served for eight years as joint secretary at Delhi and Simla to the Countess of Dufferin’s Fund, an organisation which was established to promote medical education for women in India.
While being based in the UK, Balfour made a number of return visits to India, in particular in connection with research into tropical anaemias she was undertaking with Dr Lucy Wills.
In 1930, Balfouf published results of an investigation into maternity conditions among female mill-workers in Bombay and became one of the founding members of the Overseas Association of the Medical Women’s Federation.
[6] In the 1930s, Balfour also became interest in maternal health issues in the UK, publishing Motherhood in the Special Areas of Durham and Tyneside with Joan Catherine Drury in 1935, and the Study of the Effect on Mother and Child of Gainful Occupation During Pregnancy in 1938.