BY Stephen Kenechi
Chuka Nwokolo, a UK-trained Nigerian doctor, is among the top figures in medicine recognised for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2021 Queen’s birthday honours list.
The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch’s official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals.
The 2021 list is dominated by the heroes and heroines of the pandemic and key players in Britain’s vaccine rollout.
Nwokolo, who came to the UK from Nigeria to become a top consultant gastroenterologist at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, got the honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Addressing the British Medical Association (BMA), Nwokolo, who came to the UK on an RCP (Royal College of Physicians) training in 1985, said greater support for overseas-trained doctors will help others share in his success.
“In a sense, I am the one that got away. I can’t claim to be typical of black doctors [in this country]. I was helped by a huge infusion of luck mostly by way of supportive idealistic NHS trainers that I encountered,” the doctor said.
Chukwuedu, his father, was an internationally recognised physician who had taken his family on visits to the UK from their home in Nigeria. The young Nwokolo had then chosen to come to Cambridge for a medical elective.
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