University Honour for Medical Pioneer

The University of Wolverhampton has awarded a medical pioneer from the Midlands an Honorary Degree.

Professor Rashid Gatrad OBE was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from the Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing in the ceremony on Thursday, 18 September at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre.

Professor Gatrad became one of the few non-white acute consultant paediatricians of the day in the 1980s after graduating in medicine from the University of Leeds.

He is currently Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Wolverhampton and the University of Kentucky and holds a National Award for Clinical Excellence. He has also co-written two books which were launched to great acclaim in the House of Lords and over 80 papers in peer reviewed medical journals.

Professor Gatrad has also been made a postgraduate examiner, for those becoming child specialists, by the Royal College of Paediatrics and has been a post graduate tutor for doctors in Walsall, alongside being President of the Midlands Regional Paediatric Society.

In 2002, Professor Gatrad was awarded an OBE, and soon after he was given the Freedom of the Borough of Walsall and was made Deputy Lieutenant to Her Majesty the Queen in 2014.

Amongst his many achievements he halved the mortality of new-born babies in Walsall, worked as part of a team which formed the basis of the national Hepatitis B vaccine programme, and is a world expert in differential growth of children from different cultures.
 
Professor Gatrad said: “All these achievements would not have been possible without the unstinting support from my wife and two children.

“In one’s success many people are a part. However, my inspiration comes from my Mum and Dad who often told me that - in life one should try and be ‘beyond’ outstanding and maximize one’s potential.

“Therefore with wanting to be a doctor at the age of five years, it is something that I am not going to give up easily. Even though I am 69 years of age now, I am definitely not thinking of retiring. I am sure I will get further wonderful opportunities to realise my parent’s dream of shining a light, at least in some corners of the world, where misery lurks.’’

ENDS

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