UAE delegation delivers gifts to Emirati children at Great Ormond Street Hospital

Tributes paid to 'young heroes' receiving treatment in UK

The visit was held in honour of Emirati Children's Day, which was celebrated on Wednesday. Wam

A UAE government delegation delivered gifts to Emirati children receiving treatment at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Prof Maha Barakat, director general of the Frontline Heroes Office, paid tribute to the “young heroes” he met when he visited the wards.

The visit was held in honour of Emirati Children's Day, which was celebrated on Wednesday.

“We wish all children a prosperous and healthy future, and look forward to the speedy recovery of the many brave, young heroes we met today,” said Prof Barakat.

The UAE has forged close links with the world-leading children's hospital in recent years in an effort to advance health care and research.

The Zayed Centre for Research, which is located adjacent to Great Ormond Street Hospital, was established thanks to a £60 million gift from Sheikha Fatima, Mother of the Nation, in 2014.

The centre, a partnership between Great Ormond Street Hospital, University College London and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, opened its doors in 2019.

It focuses on understanding and treating rare diseases in children.

Much of its work relates to conditions with a genetic basis.

Speaking in 2019 to The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, Prof David Goldblatt, director of clinical research and development at Great Ormond Street Hospital, said most rare diseases with a genetic cause developed in childhood.

The centre has world-class laboratories and amenities, including seven rooms where gene and cell therapies can be produced, described as the largest such unit in the UK.

There are 140 laboratory benches “for early development work to test the safety and efficacy of potential new treatments”, nine tissue-culture rooms where new treatments can be tested on lab-grown cells and a flow cytometry suite for the sorting and identification of cells.