My voluntary work started with the Scottish charity Resurge Africa which I joined in 1997 to help with the establishment of a reconstructive plastic surgery hospital in Accra in Ghana. The project involved building a surgical unit within the grounds of Korle Bu teaching hospital and training Ghanaian plastic surgeons by providing training in the UK and in Ghana. The hospital is now fully established and is today run by its Ghanaian surgeons. The hospital provides reconstructive services to a wide area in West Africa. It has a burns unit and a special interest in treating cleft lip and palate.

Facing Africa was established to treat Children with Noma, a disease of the rural poor and malnourished which causes severe damage and deformity of the soft tissues of the bones and face. Each year I lead a group of surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses from Great Ormond street and other hospitals on a mission to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to treat children with noma. The charity funds two to three missions a year. It is actively involved in teaching local doctors and plans to build a unit dedicated to the treatment and prevention of noma.

Facing the world was set up by two plastic surgeons Martin Kelly and Norman Waterhouse to treat Children with Craniofacial conditions from countries where no craniofacial service exists. The charity funds the treatment of children with the most complex problems in UK centres and supports education and training of surgeons in Vietnam. It also funds visiting fellowships to centres of excellence for surgeons based in the developing world. Facing the World funded and organised the separation of the conjoined twins Rital and Ritag from the Sudan at Great Ormond Street Hospital. I was privileged to lead the team that separated them. They are one of the very few sets of twins joined at the head to have been separated without any neurological damage