Queen’s Birthday Honours: Royal Free workers and Ms Dynamite join Emma Thompson among Hampstead greats given top awards
Surgeon Nadine Hachach-Haram has been awarded the British Empire Medal. Picture: Royal Free Hospital - Credit: Archant
Two of the Royal Free’s top staff received nods in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List on Friday for their outstanding achievements.
Surgeon Nadine Hachach-Haram has been awarded the British Empire Medal. Picture: Royal Free Hospital - Credit: Archant
Nadine Hachach-Haram, a surgeon who in 2015 developed a groundbreaking artificial intelligence platform to allow doctors to carry out surgery from miles away using headsets and robotics, received a British Empire Medal for services to surgery and innovation.
She said: “I am incredibly proud and humbled to receive this award so early in my career.”
And Breda Athan, a matron whose work during the 2015 Ebola crisis helped save the lives of all three patients treated at the Royal Free, was also made an honorary MBE. Health minister Steve Barclay praised Breda for her “unrivalled expertise in this field […] quite simply unsurpassed in the NHS and developed world”.
Breda said: “It was an absolute honour to receive this award but it wasn’t just for me.
Surgeon Nadine Hachach-Haram has been awarded the British Empire Medal. Picture: Royal Free Hospital - Credit: Archant
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“I had an amazing team around me and this award celebrates what we all achieved.”
Other local figures across the arts and education were recognised in the honours list, too.
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Niomi McLean-Daley, better known by her stage name Ms Dynamite, was made an MBE.
The rapper is a patron of Belsize Park arts charity Wac Arts, where she honed her skills as a disadvantaged teenager. Wac Arts said: “Her talent and strength as an artist as a woman is inspirational for all of us.”
Surgeon Nadine Hachach-Haram has been awarded the British Empire Medal. Picture: Royal Free Hospital - Credit: Archant
Nicholas Hale Peacey, chairman of Lauderdale House, was also made an MBE for services to arts and the community.
The Highgate Hill arts centre congratulated Nicholas for his work, stretching over four decades: “The board and all the staff and volunteers are so pleased that Nick’s hard work over 40 years has been recognised.”
Also on the receiving end of honours were composer Debbie Wiseman (MBE) and Suffragette screenwriter Abi Morgan (OBE).
Actress Emma Thompson, above, who lives in Hampstead, received a damehood for services to drama. She is president of Camden’s Helen Bamber Foundation, which treats and represents international victims of torture. And Booker Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, who also lives in Hampstead, was knighted for services to literature.
