Highgate’s Dr John Simmonds OBE has been given a lifetime achievement award at the recent National Adoption Week Awards.
Dr Simmmonds is director of policy and development for the UK’s leading adoption charity Coram.
Dr Simmonds, 69, lives in Highgate and himself adopted two children.
He told the Ham&High: “It’s a huge honour, but it makes you think about all of the people who you work with over the years. Everything we do is as part of a team, and that’s true of everything I’ve achieved.
“Adoption is obviously a wonderful part of my life in two ways, and it inspires me to have seen the effect that a loving family can have first hand. It’s so important.”
Coram, formerly the British Association of Adoption and Fostering, works to help the most vulnerable children in society find loving homes.
Before his current role, Dr Simmonds worked as a social worker in Camden while he also headed up Goldsmith’s University’s social work programme.
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