Sir Magdi Yacoub

Professor Magdi Yacoub was born in a little village in Egypt. His father was a surgeon, constantly moving from one place to another depending on the need for surgeons around the country. This greatly affected his childhood as it meant moving every three or four years. This taught him two important things. Firstly, you have to be able to adapt, and, secondly, the enjoyment that comes with meeting and interacting with lots of different people. These lessons have served him well throughout his life.

Magdi Yacoubs work is all about helping people live longer and more fulfilling lives and describes "seeing people who are not well getting so much better" as the most satisfying part of his job. His strong sense of social responsibility led him to establish the Chain of Hope charity, which sends teams of medics to the developing world to treat children suffering from heart disease free of charge. With all the knowledge we have scientifically, we have a responsibility to help," he says. Magdi is personally involved in the charitys missions and had just returned from Mozambique.As well as treating children, the charity works to build up developing countries capacity to do operations and carry out research themselves. It helped to establish Maputo Heart Institute in Mozambique, which is training doctors and investigating how to treat EMS, a neglected heart disease. This disease affects up to 15% of children and young adults and leads to premature death. The charity also brings promising doctors from Mozambique to the UK for further training. Similarly 2 or 3 children from the developing world come to London for operations each month."The charity is called a Chain of Hope, because of the chain of people involved in the work we do - people donating money, people acting as host families for children and people donating their medical expertise," Magdi says.