A Birmingham surgeon who performed the first organ transplant in Ghana has been honoured with an MBE in the New Year's Honours list 2018.

Mr Andrew Ready, Consultant Renal Transplant Surgeon at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) was recognised for his decade of overseas development work with Transplant Links Community (TLC) and "for services to renal transplantation".

Mr Ready is Medical Director of TLC, a charitable organisation dedicated to supporting renal transplantation in the developing world. In this role he has led transplant teams to Ghana, Nigeria, Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados and Nepal and is currently developing plans with countries as far afield as Uganda and Papua New Guinea. His overseas work with Transplant Links is supported by renal transplant experts from the kidney transplant unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, part of UHB. The TLC team includes the Trust’s surgeons, kidney specialists, nurses and operating theatre technicians who give up their own time to travel. 

Mr Ready said: “I am truly honoured to receive this award. Nevertheless, in accepting it, I recognise the contributions made by so many others to the work we have undertaken with Transplant Links. I am most grateful to my colleagues in TLC for their determination to make this project succeed and to the personnel from UHB who have travelled with us, in their own time, to support the initiative. I also recognise the support that Dame Julie Moore gave when I first spoke to her of starting the overseas activity and, for that, I am most grateful.”

Dame Julie Moore, Chief Executive of UHB, said: “I am delighted Andrew has been honoured in this way: it is a well-deserved recognition of the work to share skills and, ultimately, save lives in developing countries.”

Transplant Links was established in 2006 by a group of British doctors with many years of experience in kidney transplantation, wanting to share their skills with doctors and surgeons in developing countries. TLC Founder and Chief Executive, Dr Jennie Jewitt-Harris, said: “It’s great that Andrew’s hard work has been recognised. Transplant Links just celebrated its 10-year anniversary, so it’s an exciting way to end a decade of transforming the lives of patients with kidney failure. His work, supported by the collaboration with UHB, has made such a difference to patients across the Commonwealth, and through skill transfer to local doctors ensures more patients will benefit in the future.” 

Mr Ready was born and grew up in Birmingham and is a graduate of the University of Birmingham Medical School. During his postgraduate training he gained Masters and Doctorate degrees for research into aspects of transplant immunology before undertaking a period as a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University, California. He was appointed as a consultant surgeon at UHB in 1995.