Marcela Botnar was born Marcela Camelia Perian on 29th July 1928, in the historic city of Alba Iulia in Western Transylvania. When her studies were over, Marcela moved to Bucharest. Using her foreign languages skills, she gained employment at the National Tourist Office. In 1951 she met and married Octav Botnar. Marcela gave birth to their only child, Camelia Eugenia, the following year on 14th August 1952. In the 1960s, she left Romania with her husband and daughter and the family settled in the United Kingdom, joining Octav’s brother, Max Bunford. In 1972, Camelia was tragically killed in a car accident just before Christmas at the age of 20. After the death of her husband Octav, Marcela carried out his wishes and created Fondation Botnar, based in Basel, with the aim of helping children in need around the world.

Octav Bundorf (renamed Botnar after the Second World War) was born in 1913 in Chernivtsi, which was then called Czernowitz and belonged to Austria-Hungary. During his childhood, in 1918, Austria-Hungary dissolved and his hometown, renamed Cernăuţi, became part of Romania. Botnar began life as a political activist in Romania and later became a leading member of the French Resistance, fighting to undermine Nazi Germany. He moved back to Romania and in 1951 married Marcela Camelia Perian. They later moved to the UK where Octav developed a successful car business. Following the death of his daughter Camelia, he became a leading philanthropist. Throughout his lifetime he donated more than $100 million to causes for children, including the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.