It was a proud week for Crown Clinic because our surgeon Asim Shahmalak was named as Man of the Year.
Dr Shahmalak won the award at the prestigious Fusion Awards which recognise outstanding achievements in the community.
Asim was unanimously voted Man of the Year because of his humanitarian work in Pakistan.
You can read more about the awards here.
Regular readers of the blog will recall that Asim travelled to Karachi last year to perform hair transplants, and eyebrow and eyelash transplants on seven women who had been horrifically attacked with acid. He performed all the surgery for free, spending £50,000 of his own money, and taking a team from Crown Clinic with him so they could teach local medics how to perform the procedures.
Asim released some very moving quotes to the media following the awards.
He said: “It was an honour to receive the Man of the Year award but the real heroes are the women who have survived these horrific attacks.
“I wept when I first heard what had happened to them.
“Their stories were heartbreaking – scarred for life because you want to better yourself and work as a hair hostess.
“Doused with acid because you turned down a man’s proposal – people were better treated in the Middle Ages.
“It was incredibly moving to see the smiles on their faces after we performed the surgery. They had given up hope of ever getting help because the Government in Pakistan cannot afford to do anything for them. We were their last hope.
“They are not accepted by society because of their disfigurement. They cannot get jobs and, in some cases, they have been disowned by their families and left to beg on the streets.
“There is still lots more work to do. These attacks are continuing and I plan to go back to Karachi to help more victims in the future.”