24 Jun Celebrating THREE prestigious awards
We are delighted to tell you about three awards Mercy Ships UK has won in the last few months. What we love about these awards is that they represent the incredible hard work and dedication of our staff and volunteers, both on our ships and in the UK.
Award number one: Global Leader in Sustainable Surgical Access 2026
Global Health & Pharma celebrates organisations driving progress across the global health landscape. We’re thrilled to have won this award as it recognises our commitment to partner with local healthcare providers to educate and train.
In sub-Saharan Africa at least 90% of the population has no access to affordable surgical care and those who do are twice as likely to die from complications than in higher-income regions.
Recognising these critical gaps, we partner with African nations to help bridge disparities by:
Collaboratively assessing to understand local needs
Educating and training around medical services
Continued impact evaluation
What does this look like practically?
Safer surgery training in Sierra Leone
A brand new dental school in Guinea
A new nurse anaesthesia programme in Sierra Leone
Award number two: GHP Community Empowerment Excellence Award 2026
This second award from Global Health & Pharma has been awarded for our dedication, innovation and impact in community-driven healthcare, social care and wellbeing initiatives.
This award covers not only the impact of performing 7,050 life-changing surgical procedures in 2025, but also the depth and sustainability of our work.
Through our Education, Training, and Advocacy (ETA) program, 1,061 participants were trained, contributing to an extraordinary 305,400 hours of training delivered over the year. This commitment to capacity building ensures that the impact extends far beyond the ships’ departure, equipping local healthcare professionals with skills, knowledge and confidence to continue delivering quality care within their own communities.
To find out more about this, have a read of Becky Chaplin’s story to see how she is training up a cohort of physios in Sierra Leone.
Award number three: Acquisition Magazine names Debbie Birch Charity Communications Leader of the Year 2026 in the Influential Businesswoman Awards.
We are so proud of Debbie, our Director of Communications and Engagement, for being selected for this award, which celebrates women who are leading with purpose, driving change and making an impact across industries worldwide.
“To be recognised amongst such inspiring women is incredibly special,” says Debbie.
Debbie arrived at Mercy Ships UK with a strong background in charity communications and she’d expertly driven the team forward, finding new and exciting ways to share our stories of lives transformed through surgery, healthcare training and hope.