Professor Ajay Vora awarded MBE in King’s New Year’s Honours

Consultant Paediatric Haematologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), Professor Ajay Vora, has been awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List.

The King’s list recognises Professor Vora for his services to childhood leukaemia and makes him a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Professor Ajay Vora has been a Consultant Paediatric Haematologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital since 2017. With close ties to Sheffield, he has also been a Consultant Paediatric Haematologist at Sheffield Children's Hospital since 1995 and held a Professorship at Sheffield University (Paediatric Haematology) since 2005. He has a special interest in childhood leukaemia and cord blood transplantation and his expertise in the care of children with a variety of malignant and non-malignant blood disorders means he is widely recognised as a leader in the fields of childhood leukaemia and bone marrow transplantation.

Earlier this year, a clinical trial he co-led at GOSH was described as a ‘game-changer’, offering children with cancer a kinder alternative to chemotherapy.

He has taken a leading role in many clinical trials in childhood ALL and haemopoietic stem cell transplantation nationally and internationally. He is Chief Investigator of several national and international phase three clinical trials and Principal Investigator of over 20 trials. He has around 400 publications, from peer-reviewed research breakthroughs and reviews of the state-of-the-art in cancer, to editing books and chapters on childhood ALL.

He is a past chair of the UK NCRI childhood leukaemia sub-group and I-BFM Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) Committee. Until March 2017, he was programme director of the Trent Regional Paediatric Haemopoeitic Stem Cell transplant service.

Professor Vora said of the award: “I am delighted and honoured to receive an MBE in the New Year’s honours list. I see it as a recognition for the dedication and determination of all those who have been involved in improving the treatment of children with leukaemia such that cure rates for the most common type are now over 90% compared with less than 50% when I started in this field. This manifestly could not have been achieved by a single person and I am grateful to all those who have been my collaborators and companions on this exciting journey.”

Mat Shaw, Chief Executive at GOSH said: “We are so delighted that Professor Vora has been recognised by the King in this way. His dedication to treating children with cancer can be seen through his research portfolio and the teams he works with at GOSH. The way he combines the very best care and the latest in research and innovation is exactly how we want to develop our future Children’s Cancer Centre, where we can work together to deliver a step change for children with cancer.”