Uyanwah was born in Enugu in 1938. Her parents were Martha Nnonye and Patrick Uyanwah. She was the only child of her parents to survive. She went to school in Nigeria before studying at the University of Aberdeen, graduating in 1964. In the late 1960s the civil war within Nigeria started with an area of Nigeria called Biafra trying to create their own country. The people of Biafra were primarily the Igbo people. The war ended in a siege and mass starvation. Uyanwah's sense of duty took her back to Nigeria and Biafra where she served as the Chief Medical Officer. She and her son were able to return to Scotland in 1969 thanks to a Red Cross Passport.