Post by Saima Mohsin

I’m so pleased to share that my sister Professor Farah Bhatti OBE is the new President of the British Medical Association . She’s always been my ‘claim to fame’ and an inspirational role model. She keeps raising the bar & the family standards to seemingly impossible possible heights!! Farah personifies the accolade Pioneer - in her case this translates as the UK’s first British Pakistani woman to be appointed as a consultant cardiac surgeon and the first female consultant cardiac surgeon in Wales. She’s worked at the prestigious Harefield and Brompton Hospitals and contributed to advances in cardiac and renal transplants when she gained an MD in transplantation research from Cambridge. Having qualified in medicine from Oxford. She is an examiner for the Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons with other prominent roles including Chair of the Women in Surgery and the Lead for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The list goes on but suffice to say being nationally and internationally recognised has not made her inaccessible but rather she is committed to supporting and mentoring people from under privileged backgrounds, working classes, all races and young women in her commitment to #Liftasweclimb. After all we are the children of immigrants & raised in South London. One of her most unique characteristics & contributions for me though is her unwavering commitment to the NHS. She refused to “go private” with a firm belief in every person’s right to access healthcare. Chapeau. Our father died of a heart attack aged 47. Since then Farah has saved many hundreds of lives. What a tribute. What a legacy. We were raised by our mother, widowed at 39 who instilled in us a dedication to education, to being women who work and have careers but above all being good human beings. My brother and two sisters are great role models & guiding lights. Truly. Being proud of someone is often about our link to them, our family, our community. She certainly makes us all proud. But most of all I’m so very pleased you are getting the well deserved recognition for your hard work, grit, determination and commitment to healthcare, individual lives and their families. Bravo! Mubarak! Congratulations!