Well done to Zahid Mukhtar, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at St George’s, on being nominated for The Sun’s Who Cares Wins awards.

Zahid unfortunately lost out in the Best Neonatal Specialist category at the ceremony on Monday 10 October, but to even be nominated is a huge achievement.

He was nominated for the award after he performed life-saving surgery on 23-week-old Abiageal Peters last year. Abi, who is the youngest ever patient to undergo an operation at St George’s, had major emergency surgery to correct a severe condition of the gut affecting pre-term babies called perforated necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC.

Abi’s mum Louise told The Sun: “Most surgeons wouldn’t have touched Abi because she was just so small, but Mr Mukhtar was willing to try and so were we. She had less than a ten per cent chance of survival, but I knew she was in good hands with him.”

After the ceremony, Zahid said: “To have even been nominated for this award is an honour, and I was thrilled to attend the ceremony last night. Abi is now approaching her second birthday, and to see she is doing so well is reward enough for me and the outstanding team here at St George’s that helped to save her life.”