KidsOR
1242. Garreth Wood
1243. Nicola Wood
Garreth and Nicola Wood, from Edinburgh, discovered that Rwanda had no specialist paediatric operating theatre, so they created one through their charity ‘Kids Operating Room (KidsOR)’, and within 18 months it has enabled 9,000 operations, saving over 1,000 lives.
KidsOR is a global health charity founded by Garreth and Nicola Wood. Focused on developing sustainable surgical services for children in low- and middle-income countries, it has been hailed as the most impactful and meaningful development in children’s surgery anywhere in the world.
Working across Africa and Latin America, KidsOR have already provided more than 13,000 children with access to emergency life-saving and/or life-changing surgery. As a result, more than 220,000 years of disability have been prevented from ever happening.
In a personal letter to Garreth and Nicola, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
“I know you do this with no thought of praise or reward, but allow me to offer my own recognition of how you responded to the desperate need for paediatric medical facilities across Africa, and how your creation of specially designed operating theatres is saving thousands of lives each year.”
Garreth and Nicola said:
“We are honoured and delighted to receive this award from the Prime Minister. It is testimony to the hard work of the incredible surgical teams we partner with that so many children are able to access the emergency care they need.
“We believe access to surgery is a basic human right and we look forward to a day when no child will die, or be forced to live their life in pain or disability, because they can’t get the surgical care they need and deserve.”