BFIRST January 2026 Newsletter

29 January 2026 (Last updated: 29 Jan 2026 11:19)

News

Webinar series

Thank you Mr Srinivasan, for a wonderful talk on Microsurgery as the first of the 2026 BFIRST webinar series. There was a very animated and engaging discussion at the end of webinar with attendees from all over the world including the UK, Pakistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Myanmar, Nigeria and The Gambia.

If you missed Mr Srinivasan's talk you can watch it here! 

BFIRST Trustee Khurram Khan visit to Gaza - BFIRST affiliated project

Mr Khurram Khan, Consultant Cleft & Plastic Surgeon and BFIRST Member visited Al-Shifa Hospital in December 2025 for 2 weeks. The travel was through a WHO registered charity organisation (Heroic Hearts, USA) with a well-established framework and local team in the region. The purpose of the trip was to focus on re-starting cleft surgery for the local population.

                                               Shifa Hospital

Aims

• Assess local Cleft Surgery situation
• Establish relationship with identified local surgeons and team to train, teach and support high quality and safe local primary cleft surgery
• Start the process of building links for a locally based Cleft MDT, with virtual and/or visiting support from the UK

                                                                                        Local Team

Overview of time spent
Met 5 out of the 6 of the current local Plastic Surgeons in Gaza.

Performed cases with and trained with 4 of these surgeons (2 identified as leads for cleft surgery).

Cleft Outpatient clinics x2 at Shifa Hospital.

• local doctor from GINA attended to support nutrition pre/post surgery
• UK cleft speech therapist sent patient speech sample videos to assess virtually and advise on surgical benefit

Operated on 19 cases (17 cleft, 2 non-cleft complex nasal reconstructions).

• Majority unrepaired primary cleft palates
• Any children/infants only operated if GINA cleared no malnutrition
• All cases performed with local surgeons – lower complexity used as teaching/training case
• All cases managed by visiting Paediatric Anaesthetists (Italy and UK) with local anaesthetists in attendance

Cleft teaching sessions (4 local Plastic surgeons covering North).

Met local speech therapist lead.

Basic Surgical Skills session x2 for local medical students.

                                     View from the hospital

There are many key issues to overcome to build a sustainable cleft service. With a ceasefire in place, the overall number of acute war injuries has decreased. The local health ministry is trying to re-start all elective surgical services, though this is now with a shattered healthcare system and infrastructure.

                                                          Local teaching and Training

There are many key issues to overcome to build a sustainable cleft service. With a ceasefire in place, the overall number of acute war injuries has decreased. The local health ministry is trying to re-start all elective surgical services, though this is now with a shattered healthcare system and infrastructure.

• Option 1: wait for visiting missions only
  • This option is unreliable, with no local sustainability.
• Option 2: UK team to train local team to give independence concentrate on primary surgery, build in secondary speech surgery once primary established, train/support/teach local SLT team in cleft speech.

                                                      Basic Surgical Skills Training

While in Gaza, and since returning to the UK, several cleft strategy conversations were made with CLEFT UK (Brian Sommerlad and Tim Goodacre), the local surgeons, Ahmed Mokhallati, and Andy Ferguson from IDEALS (UK based charity focusing on Ortho-plastic missions to Gaza). Andy was also in Gaza in December, and visited Shifa and Nasser Hospital.

                                                                Local medical students

Given the unpredictable approval and challenging situation, the current proposal is for small group of visiting UK cleft surgeons ideally with anaesthetic support to rotate visits on a 4-6 month basis with logistic and local support from IDEALS.

Conclusion
Despite the inherent difficulties the visit was extremely positive for both sides. The local surgeons appreciated being involved from the outset, and to be trained directly. Since the visit the two senior surgeons have started jointly operating with lower complexity cleft surgery independently, and remain in regular contact for advice.

BFIRST Essay Prize

BFIRST Essay Prize (£250.00) 2026
We are delighted to announce the 2026 BFIRST Essay Prize!
 
The title for this year’s contest is “How can harnessing AI transform surgical care in resource-poor countries – for better or worse?” 

We are looking forward to receiving your essay until 23.59 GMT, on 1 May 2026.
The winner will present their work in an upcoming BFIRST Overseas Day or session at the BAPRAS Winter meeting. (Please note we will not fund travel to this meeting however this work can be presented virtually).

Submission
To submit your essay, please send it to info@bfirst.org.uk.
Please provide a separate note with your essay containing your name, grade and current hospital of work. This information will not be provided to your assessors and all essays will be graded anonymously.

Eligibility

• Resident Doctors at all stages and medical students worldwide are eligible to submit an essay to be considered for the prize.
• Submissions made after the deadline has passed will not be taken into consideration.
• Please refrain from using your own title and use the title provided above.
• Please do not include your name in the text of the essay itself.
• Multiple submissions of the same or different essays are not allowed, and only the first submitted essay will be graded.

Word count and document formatting

• Maximum word count 1500 words. Any content beyond the word count will not be assessed.
• Please submit in Word or PDF format.
• Please use double spaced Calibri Font 12 for all content of your essay.

Any deviation from this will result in penalisation.

The LION hospital, Malawi Opportunity

We are looking for an upper limb Consultant surgeon (plastics or orthopaedics) to volunteer at the LION in Malawi, during the following dates:

• 24th May – 19th July 2026
• 13th September – 27th September 2026
• 25th October – 22nd November 2026

If you are interested in volunteering at the LION hospital for some or all of these dates, please let us know if via this link. 

Meet the Team 

Kate Radcliffe: Education, research and fellowships

subcommittee 

Tell us about yourself!
My name is Kate, I am a Plastic Surgery Registrar in the North West, and the current BFIRST Fellowship Coordinator. I moved to Manchester for university, completed my Medical Degree and MRes in Translational Medicine, and have been in Manchester ever since. I'm currently working in Royal Preston Hospital, which is also where I was first exposed to Plastic Surgery and Reconstructive Surgery as a medical student!

Tell us about your time with BFIRST
I took over the role of Fellowship Coordinator as part of the Trainee Committee in 2024. I have so far managed fellowships for 14 Fellows from all over the world. I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet several of them at conferences, or during their placements. This has been such a rewarding experience - meeting these colleagues and comparing our training experiences is very eye-opening. It's been lovely to keep in touch with some of them and see how they develop their services back home after their fellowships.

Why did you want to work with BFIRST?
My interest in Global Surgery started when I completed a 3-week placement in Iringa Regional Hospital in Tanzania as a student. Seeing how the staff manage and adapt with few resources really put a lot of the problems the UK faces in perspective. It was also interesting to see how a completely different culture affects the way healthcare is delivered.

What are your aspirations for BFIRST?
Going forward I would love to go on a recurring trip with BFIRST where I can create a long-lasting professional relationship with some of the trainees in that country, and hopefully maintain that when we all qualify as consultants. This long-term approach to projects is one of the great things about BFIRST. I would love to explore other roles on the trainee committee, so I can understand better how BFIRST functions and join the Consultant Committee one day!

What do you like to do outside of work and BFIRST?
Outside of BFIRST, I love to travel – I have just booked a 3-week trip exploring Brazil! I also do Aerial Silks, and balance that with trying every restaurant and local cuisine I can.

---

Webinars

BFIRST 2026 Webinar Series

21st February 2026, 13:00 GMT
Setting Up an Orthoplastics Service, Mr A Emam

Join the webinar here

Meeting ID: 850 0769 3708
Passcode: 206443

Mr Ahmed Emam is a consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon based in Swansea, with a special interest in microsurgery and limb reconstruction. He leads the plastic surgery for South Wales Major Trauma Network and currently chairs the BAPRAS Trauma Special interest Group (SIG) and is co-chair of the BFIRST Education, Research and Fellowship Subcommittee.   

Additional webinar dates and topics will follow throughout the year as we continue to expand our programme.

Please follow our socials for updates about future webinars.

If you have missed any of the webinars from last year, you can watch them on our website including some fantastic webinars for revision of key topics within Plastic Surgery!

Our previous webinars are now also available via our YouTube channel!

Projects 

Ethiopia

This month BFIRST were at the ALERT Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This visit was led by Rebecca Shirley and James Chan, and included delivering a microsurgical course, with local and BFIRST faculty, live operating and training for surgeons and scrub staff, to support the local microsurgical service.
The course was run using six training microscopes donated and shipped out by BFIRST.
We look forward to the report of their visit!

 

Fellowships

BFIRST Fellows

The 2026 BFIRST fellows have been selected, congratulations to:
Dr Lambert Onahi Iji from Nigeria
Dr Masroor-ur-Rahman from Bangladesh
Dr Natasha Ilako from Kenya

BFIRST Fellow Updates

Dr Tobi Abass: BFIRST Fellow in Taiwan
Dr Abass is currently completing a twelve month BFIRST fellowship in Taiwan, under Professor Seng-Feng Jeng.

“In addition to my activities at E-DA Hospital, I recently had the privilege of attending the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Taiwan Society of Plastic Surgery (TSPS), which held on December 13-14 in the beautiful historic city of Tainan thanks to my trainer Prof. Seng-Feng Jeng. The theme for this years’ meeting was ‘Illuminate, Inspire, and Refine,’ and it truly did just that.

This conference, jointly organized with the Taiwan Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery (TSRM), was an incredible opportunity to immerse myself in the latest advancements in plastic and reconstructive surgery.
The scientific program featured outstanding talks, including the Noordhoff lecture by Prof. Rod J Rohrich reflects on his 30+ year journey toward surgical precision and reproducible outcomes.

The session on innovative approaches to perforator flaps and lower extremity reconstruction was truly inspiring to me because there are quite a number of traumatic lower limb defects back home that require microsurgery reconstruction and I learned practical tips on how to go about it.

I was able to network with people and met Dr Jing, who is doing a fellowship in Taiwan, as he is rounding off his plastic surgery training in the UK. Sadly, I could not explore Tainan's rich historical sites as I had to get back to Kaohsiung in time for another meeting. 

The fellowship continues to be transformative, and events like the TSPS meeting reinforce my learning. 
I have seen a steady progress as through the fellowship - when I arrived, I had not harvested an ALT flap before, but now, after assisting and guidance, I now have performed a solo harvest case and hope to improve and have the opportunities to do more, so that I can take these skills home after the fellowship."

Fundraising

Tony and James Quinn climb Kilimanjaro fundraising for BFIRST

Father and son duo Tony and James Quinn have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, fundraising for BFIRST! So far, they have raised just over £2000!

  

If you’ve not yet had a chance to sponsor them you can do so here!

RLH Plastic Surgery Department X BLAPRAS Christmas Networking Event

BFIRST was the chosen charity for the RLH plastic surgery department X BLAPRAS Christmas Networking Event, through which £143.64 was fundraised! Thank you very much!

London to Paris 24 hour cycling challenge

Nav Cavale will be fundraising for BFIRST through the London to Paris 24Hrs Cycle in May!

If you want to join him and the BFIRST team in this challenge let us know here!

Click here for more information about this event.

BFIRST Scrub Hats

We launched the BFIRST scrub hats at the BAPRAS Congress in December 2025,  which were hugely popular, if you would like to purchase a hat please email: hcroberts46@gmail.com.
All proceeds will fund work undertaken by BFIRST!

Other  

Open Hand Therapy Initiative

The Open Hand Therapy Initiative aims to improve hand injury care in resource challenged settings in order to reduce disability, improve quality of life and increase chances of work for people with hand injuries and conditions.

They provide accessible, relevant and captivating learning opportunities for generalist occupational therapists and physiotherapists that motivate ongoing development for hand-injury care.

They also invite hand therapists acquainted with the challenges faced in low to middle income countries to participate in strengthening hand injury care in these settings by sharing their expertise.

For more information click here!

How can I help?

Volunteering

BFIRST is keen for surgeons, nurses and allied specialists to all get involved. Please do get in touch if you are interested. Reconstructive surgery is a team sport!