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The National
24-07-2025
- General
- The National
Abu Dhabi Awards celebrates 20 years honouring community spirit
The Abu Dhabi Awards have recognised more than 100 people making a difference in the emirate over the past two decades and nominations are now open for the 12th cycle. Among those already recognised are a pioneering radiologist and a champion for the disabled. Here, The National takes a look at previous winners, why they were put forward by their communities and what it will take for the next batch of nominees to be among the winners. Dr Essam El Shammaa When the UAE's Dr Essam El Shammaa returned to Abu Dhabi in 1976, he came on unpaid leave from Great Ormond Street and the Royal Free Hospital in London. He had no plans to stay for long and wanted to remain in the UK but he soon "fell in love with the people" in the Emirates, he told The National. His early work with ultrasound, especially in detecting a baby's gender, sparked controversy at the time but a conversation with UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, reassured him that he had the country's full support. One of his early breakthroughs came during a routine ultrasound when he accidentally dropped a metal tool and saw the foetus flinch. 'I called my colleagues and said, 'babies can hear',' he said. 'They laughed. So I showed them. I dropped different tools and each time, the baby flinched.' His message today is as direct as ever: 'Don't upset your wife. Don't yell at her. The baby can hear you. And if you upset her, her body produces more adrenalin – that baby is going to be born hating you for upsetting their mother.' He was also the first to advocate husbands being allowed into Corniche Hospital, which at the time was restricted to women only. 'Fathers would have a baby, see them from afar, but never develop that connection,' he said. 'But if they're there from the first ultrasound, from the very beginning, they form stronger bonds.' He remains an adviser at the hospital with the imaging department where he first worked. He was recognised with an Abu Dhabi Award in 2021. Theban Al Mheiri Theban Al Mheiri was 23 when the car taking him to the airport at the start of a journey that would see him travel to the US for an English language course, crashed. 'When I woke up, I thought I was in the afterlife,' he recalled. 'Everyone around me was wearing masks. For a moment, I thought I could be in heaven or hell. I was terrified.' Within seconds, he realised he was in a hospital. And then came the harder truth: he had lost movement in both legs. Mr Al Mheiri slipped into a period of deep depression. He mourned not only the use of his legs, but the version of his life that no longer existed – the one that was heading abroad, filled with possibility. But over time, that sorrow transformed into resolve. 'There's no reason to be upset forever,' he said. 'You have to find your purpose and help others find theirs, too.' And that's exactly what he did – Mr Al Mheiri went on to become one of the UAE's most dedicated advocates for the disabled. Over the past three decades, he has helped thousands navigate the emotional, physical and societal challenges of living with a disability. Mr Al Mheiri's work has helped bring attention to the simplest yet most profound daily struggles – such as the difficulty of using a toilet or navigating inaccessible public spaces. 'I don't want people to put themselves in our shoes,' he said. 'I want them to understand that these challenges are real. We just need time and support to overcome them." His message is simple but deeply felt: "Never give up.' He was recognised with an Abu Dhabi Award in 2017. The organisers 'The awards recognise people who unite and inspire through their actions,' says Mahra Al Shamsi of the organising committee. 'They embody unity, compassion and giving.' Every year brings new stories, from medical pioneers to environmental champions to disability rights advocates. 'We're not limited by nationality,' adds Amal Al Ameri. 'These values; goodness, selflessness, helping others, are universal.' What are the awards? Nominations for this year's Abu Dhabi Awards are now open and anyone, from children to seniors, can submit a hero on the official website, including a special form for younger nominators. Held under the patronage of President Sheikh Mohamed, the awards recognise those who have shown exceptional dedication and commitment to serving the country. Eligible candidates are: Citizens, residents, or visitors whose good deeds have benefited the UAE. People whose international contributions reflect positively on the Emirates. Individuals whose voluntary work, advocacy, or public service made a lasting impact. Once submitted, nominations go through a research and review phase where a team evaluates each candidate's impact. Finalists are then reviewed by a panel of judges, who make the final recommendations. The recipients will be honoured during a special ceremony, where President Sheikh Mohamed personally awards each winner the Abu Dhabi Medal. The date for this ceremony is yet to be confirmed.
The Independent
25-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Three-year-old becomes youngest patient to receive groundbreaking gene therapy
Ella Pickover Wednesday 25 June 2025 06:33 BST Gunreet Kaur is the youngest person in the UK to be given a groundbreaking gene therapy for a rare condition (Handout/PA) Three-year-old Gunreet Kaur became the youngest person in the UK to receive a groundbreaking gene therapy for a rare, life-threatening inherited condition. Gunreet, diagnosed with aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency, received the Upstaza treatment in February 2024 at Great Ormond Street children's hospital (GOSH). AADC deficiency is a rare and often deadly condition caused by a gene mutation that prevents the production of dopamine, leading to severe developmental and movement issues. The Gene therapy, eladocagene exuparvovec, involves delivering a working AADC gene directly into the brain to enable the production of the missing enzyme. Since receiving the treatment, Gunreet has made significant progress, including improved coordination, new movements, and vocalisation, with hopes for further development. In full
The Independent
24-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Mother's delight as gene therapy offers hope to three-year-old
A child with a life-threatening disease has become the youngest in the UK to receive a groundbreaking gene therapy. Three-year-old Gunreet Kaur has a rare inherited condition that affects children's physical, mental and behavioural development. Children with aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency find it difficult to control their head, blood pressure and heart rate. But after receiving the new gene therapy, called Upstaza, Gunreet has made progress that her mother thought would never be possible, such as new movements and vocalising. It is hoped that she will make further strides as she ages. Gunreet, from Hayes in west London, was nine months old when she was diagnosed with the condition. She received the treatment in February 2024 at the world-renowned Great Ormond Street children's hospital (GOSH), which is the only hospital in the UK offering the treatment to children. Sandeep Kaur said Gunreet has made 'great progress' since her treatment. 'When Gunreet was about seven months old I noticed she wasn't reaching her milestones at the same age that her older brother did,' she said. 'She couldn't hold her own head up or reach out for items. She cried a lot and always wanted to be held. 'Since having the gene therapy, Gunreet has made great progress. 'She cries less, smiles more, and can reach for objects. 'She can hold her head up and is trying to sit up, she's recently learned how to roll from her stomach to her back which is fantastic to see. 'It means a lot to me that Gunreet was able to have this gene therapy – her general health has improved, she has more co-ordination, she can bring her palms together and is able to move her hand to her mouth.' AADC deficiency is caused by a mutation in the gene that produces the AADC enzyme, this enzyme is needed to produce a neurotransmitter called dopamine which is important in controlling movement. People with AADC deficiency do not have a working version of the enzyme, which means that they have little or no dopamine in the brain. This means that they can suffer developmental delays, weak muscle tone and inability to control the movement of the limbs. It can also lead to painful episodes for affected children. The condition is rare and often deadly, with many children with AADC deficiency not reaching adulthood. The medicine, also known as eladocagene exuparvovec, consists of a virus that contains a working version of the AADC gene. The treatment is delivered by millimetre precision to an exact location in the brain of the patient by a team of medics assisted by a robotic surgery tool. When given to the patient, it is expected that the virus will carry the AADC gene into nerve cells, enabling them to produce the missing enzyme. This is expected to enable the cells to produce the dopamine they need to work properly, which will improve symptoms of the condition. It is the first NHS England commissioned gene therapy in the UK infused directly into the brain. Professor Manju Kurian, consultant paediatric neurologist at GOSH, said 'AADC deficiency is a rare condition but often a cruel one that has such a profound impact on children and their carers and families. 'We know children with the condition have painful episodes that can last for hours and, as their condition progresses, their life becomes more and more difficult. 'It's incredible to me that I can now prescribe novel gene therapies just as I would prescribe paracetamol and antibiotics. 'While the treatment is now available under the NHS at GOSH, we can only do this by working collaboratively across teams inside and outside the hospital, from physios and surgeons to dietitians and speech therapists, alongside partnerships with companies who supply these therapies. 'It's great to see how this treatment has been able to help babies and children across the country like Gunreet. 'The natural history of the condition is that most patients cannot fully hold their head or make any developmental progress after that milestone. 'Gunreet's progress over the last year has been really impressive in that context, as well as the virtual disappearance of the eye crises. 'We're hopeful that one day she will be able to talk or walk, as seen in some of the young patients treated in the clinical trial.' Professor James Palmer, NHS medical director for specialised commissioning, said: 'This is wonderful news for Gunreet and her family, and a powerful example of how these commitments are translating into real improvements in people's lives. 'By bringing cutting-edge medicines like eladocagene exuparvovec into the health service and setting up our expert clinical teams to successfully deliver them, the NHS is making clear its commitment to improving care through innovation.'
The Independent
18-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Air pollution will be linked to 30,000 deaths in UK in 2025, leading doctors warn
Air pollution will be linked to around 30,000 deaths this year alone in the UK, with 99 per cent of the population breathing in 'toxic air', leading doctors have warned. There is 'no safe level' of air pollution, which negatively affects nearly every organ in the body, according to a new report from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). Despite emissions having reduced significantly in recent decades, even low concentrations of air pollution can have impacts on foetal development, cancer, heart disease, stroke, mental health conditions and dementia, the report warns. The doctors estimate air pollution has an economic cost of £27bn a year in healthcare costs and productivity losses, rising to as much as £50bn if wider impacts such as dementia are taken into account. More than 100 doctors, nurses, patients and activists will march to Downing Street from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children on Thursday to deliver a letter calling for the government to commit to 'ambitious' air quality targets. 'Air pollution can no longer be seen as just an environmental issue – it's a public health crisis,' said RCP president Dr Mumtaz Patel. 'We are losing tens of thousands of lives every year to something that is mostly preventable and the financial cost is a price we simply cannot afford to keep paying. 'We wouldn't accept 30,000 preventable deaths from any other cause. We need to treat clean air with the same seriousness we treat clean water or safe food. It is a basic human right – and a vital investment in our economic future.' In a foreword to the report, England's chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty warned that air pollution remains the most important environmental threat to health, causing impacts felt throughout the course of people's lives. Prof Sir Chris said: 'It is an area of health where the UK has made substantial progress in the last three decades with concentrations of many of the main pollutants falling rapidly, but it remains a major cause of chronic ill health as well as premature mortality. 'Further progress in outdoor air pollution will occur if we decide to make it, but will not happen without practical and achievable changes to heating, transport and industry in particular. Air pollution affects everybody, and is everybody's business.' Exposure to air pollution can shorten people's lives by 1.8 years – which is 'just behind some of the leading causes of death and disease worldwide', including cancer and smoking, the report states. A previous study by the UK Health Security Agency in 2022 estimated that air pollution was responsible for between 29,000 and 43,000 deaths a year in the UK among adults over the age of 30. The RCP estimates that it will be linked to 30,000 preventable deaths this year, down from an estimated 40,000 in 2016. Exposure to air pollution is distributed unevenly in the UK, the report states. While urban areas tend to have higher concentrations of traffic-related pollution, rural locations often experience air pollution linked to specific activities, such as solid fuel or wood burning, agriculture, road transport, or forest and heathland fires. Research commissioned by City Hall in 2023 found that ethnic minorities and the poorest families were most likely to live in areas of London with the most dangerously polluted air. The RCP is urging ministers to 'recognise air pollution as a key public health issue ', with the Asthma and Lung UK charity also among those calling for tougher clean air laws. A new survey from the charity suggests that one in five people with lung conditions have suffered potentially life-threatening asthma attacks and severe flare-ups of illness as a result of air pollution. More than half of 8,000 UK patients with lung conditions said air pollution had left them feeling breathless, according to the survey. 'For the millions living with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), air pollution can be deadly, yet many people are unaware of the toll it has on the nation's health,' said the charity's chief executive Sarah Sleet. 'Toxic air is a major driver of respiratory conditions and can cause lung cancer and trigger asthma attacks, as well as flare ups of lung conditions such as COPD, exacerbating symptoms such as breathlessness, wheezing and coughing. 'Despite the huge personal and financial costs of air pollution, the government has not yet shown the political will to tackle this crisis.' And one expert from Southampton warned that the nation could be walking into a 'microplastics-style crisis'. Dr Thom Daniels, consultant respiratory physician at University Hospital Southampton, said: 'While outdoor air pollution is widely recognised and understood, the dangers of indoor air pollution remain largely overlooked – and I worry we're sleepwalking into another microplastics-style crisis if we don't act now.' Next month, a cross-party group of MPs are expected to reintroduce a bill which aims to make clean air a human right under UK law, and to require ministers to achieve clean air throughout England by 2030. Green MP Sian Berry will present the bill to the Commons on 1 July. Dubbed 'Ella's Law', the proposed legislation is named after Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who lived just metres from the busy South Circular Road in Lewisham and died at the age of nine after suffering a fatal asthma attack in February 2013. She became the first person to have air pollution listed as a cause of death following a landmark inquest in 2020.
Daily Mail
18-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
How a 'severe blow' to William's head signalled the end of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's turbulent marriage
Princess Diana was enjoying lunch with a friend on June 3, 1991, at her favourite Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge when their conversation was interrupted by her bodyguard. Prince William, then eight, had suffered a 'severe blow' to his head while he and a fellow pupil were playing with a golf club in the grounds of their private boarding school Ludgrove in Berkshire. As Diana apologised to her friend and hurried from the restaurant, Prince Charles embarked on the drive from Highgrove to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading where his eldest son had been taken for tests. When both parents arrived, the doctors suggested William be taken to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London. Thankfully, the young royal was 'chirpy and chatty' as he rode in the ambulance alongside his mother, with his father following closely behind in his Aston Martin sports car. Doctors, including the Queen Elizabeth's physician Dr Anthony Dawson and neurosurgeon Richard Hayward, soon found that William had suffered a depressed fracture of the skull and required an immediate operation. 'They made it clear that there were potentially serious risks, albeit relatively small, both in the operation and in the possibility that the Prince could have suffered damage to the brain during the initial accident,' royal biographer Andrew Morton wrote in Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words. But instead of staying with his wife, and, more importantly, standing by his eldest son's side, Charles left the hospital to attend a performance of Puccini's Tosca at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden. Princess Diana apologised to her friend and swiftly travelled to the Royal Berkshire Hospital after receiving the news of William's injury His decision to put duty before family may have come as a shock to the public - but it did not surprise his wife. She accepted his decision to go to the opera as 'nothing out of the ordinary', according to Morton. William, holding his mother's hand, was wheeled into surgery for the 75-minute operation. Diana then waited anxiously in another room until Dr Hayward emerged to tell her William was fine. She later said it was one of the longest hours of her life. As she sat with William in a private room watching nurses come and go every 20 minutes to test his blood pressure and shine a light in his eyes, Charles boarded the royal train for an overnight journey to North Yorkshire where he was due to attend an environmental study. Although a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said he stayed in close touch with doctors, the media quickly cottoned on to the fact that Charles was not with his recovering son. Pictures of the prince wandering the Yorkshire Dales on his green mission were plastered across front pages. 'What kind of dad are you?' asked the Sun's headline. Diana, on the other hand, saw this as yet another example in a continuing pattern. Morton wrote that a close friend who spoke to her as soon as William came out of the operation room said: 'Had this been an isolated incident it would have been unbelievable. She wasn't surprised. 'It merely confirmed everything she thought about him and reinforced the feeling that he found it difficult to relate to the children. She got no support at all, no cuddles, no affection, nothing.' James Gilbey, Diana's lover and the man behind 'Squidygate', reinforced this view: 'Her reaction to William's accident was horror and disbelief. By all accounts it was a narrow escape. 'She can't understand her husband's behaviour so, as a result, she just blocks it out. Diana thinks: "I know where my loyalties lie: with my son."' Following two anxious nights spent at the hospital, William was discharged and travelled home with his mother. The bandages had been removed, revealing a noticeable bump and a line of stitches on the young prince's head. When Charles became aware of the public's disdain, he allegedly blamed Diana for making an 'awful nonsense' about the severity of William's injury. He also claimed he was unaware that his son and heir to the throne could have suffered brain damage. 'The dramatically different manner in which the couple responded to William's injury publicly underlined what those within their immediate circle had known for some time: the fairytale marriage between the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer was over in all but name,' wrote Morton. Charles told his official biographer Jonathan Dimbleby that he picked things back up with Camilla in 1986. Meanwhile it is alleged Diana's affair with army captain James Hewitt started around the same time. The Prince and Princess of Wales, who had separate bedrooms at their homes for years stopped sharing the same sleeping quarters during an official visit to Portugal in 1987. The next few years saw Charles and Diana plagued with rumours of marital problems, culminating in the blistering tell-all of the collapse of their marriage as published by Morton in 1992. The doomed royal couple announced their separation just months after the publication of Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words and finalised their divorce in August 1996. As well as the scar of his parent's divorce, William was left with a visible scar running across his forehead, which he humorously refers to as his 'Harry Potter' scar. He told the story of the injury while he was being interviewed by a 10-year-old cancer patient for CBBC's Newsround in 2009. Speaking to Alice, a patient at the Royal Marsden Hospital, he pointed at his head, saying: 'That was for my Harry Potter scar, as I call it, just here. Prince Charles leaves Kensington Palace after visiting William who was moved home after his two-night hospital stay 'I call it that because it glows sometimes and some people notice it - other times they don't notice it at all. 'I got hit by a golf club when I was playing golf with a friend,' he explained. 'Yeah, we were on a putting green and the next thing you know there was a seven-iron and it came out of nowhere and hit me in the head.
