UK-based Maltese doctor Clare Gerada has become the first Maltese to be made a Dame after being named in the Queen’s honours list in recognition of her 40-year medical career in the UK.
Gerada was named in Queen Elizabeth II’s honours list “for services to general practice”, having already been awarded an MBE in 2000 for her services to medicine and drug misusers.
On Twitter, Gerada said that she was “humbled” by the award, and that she was proud to have been able to serve her patients, profession and community for over 30 years.
“I’m told I’m the first Maltese woman to receive this award. Chuffed”, he wrote.
Clare Gerada, whose father is Maltese, is a general practitioner in London, and is the head of a national service in the UK which cares for doctors with mental illness. She also served as the chair of the Royal College of GPs between 2010 and 2013.
She spoke to The Malta Independent last March, detailing her experience from suffering from Covid-19 when she suffered from several symptoms related to the virus, which she believed was contracted from a trip to New York in the United States. She later recovered from the virus.
President of Malta George Vella, himself a doctor, also sent his congratulations to Gerada.
He said that the award was “yet another reminder of how the ability of the Maltese and of those of Maltese heritage around the world to help make the world a better place is much larger than our country's size.”