Winners of Sultan bin Khalifa International Thalassemia Award announced

ABU DHABI, 21st October 2015 (WAM) --- Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan Humanitarian and Science Foundation has announced the winners of the second round of the Sultan bin Khalifa International Thalassemia Award.

Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan bin Khalifa, Chairman of the Board of Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan Humanitarian and Scientific Foundation, made the announcement in a press conference in the presence of VIPs, members of the Award’s board of trustees and media representatives.

The Grand International Award for 2015 was divided equally between Prof. George Stamatoyannopoulos of the USA and Prof. Maria Domenica Cappellini of Italy.

A special recognition was given to Professor Sir David Weatherall from the USA for Lifetime Scientific Achievement.

In addition to 2013 local and international categories, the Arab award added 6 new categories and winners. This included: thalassemia Centre of excellence, thalassemia society of excellence, best published research, best awareness campaign, inspiring patient and inspiring parent. The new categories attracted many participations and added new regional flavor to the award.

This year, Sultan bin Khalifa International Thalassemia Award received more than 400 entries, all of high quality, which needed additional efforts from the scientific committees and the arbitrators to select the winners.

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan stressed on the importance of learning from the best successful stories and the latest researches to fight against and supporting thalassemia patients and their families.

"The H.H. Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan Humanitarian & Science Foundation is interested in employing scientific research to improve people’s lives. Thalassemia and the sickle cell diseases are among the challenges facing a large segment of society. It imposes a certain lifestyle on patients and limits their productivity. We are working to turn the Sultan bin Khalifa International Thalassemia Award to an integrated platform for best practices and most successful experiences that could improve the quality of the lives of patients and their families."

In the international award category, the innovative medical research award went to Dr. Stefano Rivella, PhD from the USA, University College of London- UK got the Clinical Centre of Excellence award, and the UK Thalassemia Society received the Thalassemia Society of Excellence. The Scholarship for Translational Research in Thalassemia went to Dr. Yuanhan Mo from the UK as well.

For the Arab Awards, the Chronic Care Centre, from Lebanon, won the Thalassemia Centre of Excellence award while the Thalassemia Society of Excellence award went to Thalassemia Patients Friends Society- Palestine and the Oman Hereditary Blood Disorders Association- Oman.

Prof. Amal el-Beshlawy of Egypt won the Best Published Research award.

The Inspiring Patient and Inspiring Parent awards went to Mr Ahmed Jamal Jasim Alqaisi from Iraq and Mr Mohamed Ibrahim Ali Hassan from Egypt.

Locally, Dr. Hany Dewedar from Dubai Health Authority won the Outstanding Physician award.

The award of the Outstanding Nurse went to Mrs Mercy Verghese from Dubai Health Authority and Mrs Sharbaat from the Ministry of Health- Ras Al Khaimah.

The Best Awareness Project went to UAE Marriage Fund. The best Media Coverage award is given to Mr Ahmed Ashour from Emarat El Youm newspaper and to Abu Dhabi Media- Olom Al Dar show.

Mrs Fatma Saeed Al Sawad, from Thalassemia Centre - Dubai got the Supporting Services award - Individual category, and City Bank got the Supporting Services - Organization category.

As for the Inspiring Patient category, the award was divided equally between Ms Deema Nabeeh Badawi, Ms Mona Ali Fateh Ali, Ms Sharifa Abdulla Karam Mohd and Mr Sohaib Azzam.

Mrs Amna Abdulla Ibrahim Al-Matrooshi won the Inspiring Parent award.

WAM/MMYS