Pakistani-origin paediatric cardiac surgeon Asif Hasan has been honoured with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Pride of Britain Awards in recognition of his extraordinary three-decade career saving children with severe heart conditions.
The Pride of Britain Awards, a nationally televised British programme, celebrates unsung heroes for exceptional achievements and humanity, with winners chosen through public nominations and a panel of judges.
According to the Pride of Britain website, Hasan recently retired after serving for 30 years as the head of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital. Over his illustrious career, he performed an estimated 400 heart transplants and transformed treatment for children born with complex heart defects, leaving thousands of patients alive today through his pioneering medical interventions.
Throughout his tenure at the National Health Service (NHS), Hasan spearheaded critical breakthroughs in paediatric care. He co-led Newcastle’s ‘bridge to transplant’ programme, which integrated the use of the Berlin Heart, a mechanical blood pump that keeps infants and children alive while awaiting donor organs. Additionally, he pioneered the ‘bootlace closure’ technique for post-surgical sternum closure, enabling children to receive donor hearts that would otherwise be too large for their chest cavities.
Known for accepting the country’s most critical cases, including patients turned away by other cardiac units as too high-risk, Hasan and his team at the Freeman Hospital served as a final lifeline for countless families. Former Pride of Britain ‘Children of Courage’ awardees Max Johnson and Cecilia Adamou are among those whose lives were saved under his care.
In addition to his surgical achievements, Hasan played an integral role in training the next generation of paediatric heart surgeons both in the United Kingdom and internationally.
Reflecting on his career and the recognition, Hasan credited his team and the NHS, emphasising that his proudest achievement was training successors who would surpass his own skills.
He noted that while he had witnessed immense human suffering, he had also seen incredible resilience, adding that his primary goal was to ensure the highest standard of care continues seamlessly beyond his retirement.
The paediatric cardiac surgeon said: “There have been big highs and big lows. My heart swells when I hear about a survivor doing so well, but I do remember all the traumatic cases where someone died. I’ve seen human misery up close, but also human resilience and courage.
“I’m quite an ordinary person, but I had so many extraordinary colleagues with me who gave their lives to the patients. Not just consultants, but nurses, incredible, incredible people. I have also worked in one of the most extraordinary institutions in the world, which is the NHS.
“One of my abiding resolves was that when I stopped work, nobody would miss me. It’s the art of becoming redundant. I wanted to train people so that they are not only competent, but better than me, and that’s what I have achieved. That is my proudest achievement.”