Anti-smoking crusader wins global award for relentless campaign
A Hong Kong anti-smoking campaigner who for a quarter of a century has been a thorn in the side of the tobacco industry in Asia has won a major international award for her crusading work.
Dr Judith Mackay - labelled one of the three most dangerous people in the world in a leaked tobacco industry document in the 1980s - has been presented with the British Medical Journal Group's first ever Lifetime Achievement Award.
She topped a poll of 10 shortlisted candidates including heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, pioneering US kidney doctor Robert Schrier and Indian rural health campaigner Hanumappa Sudarshan.
The prestigious publication - which attracted more than 7,000 votes in its poll - praised Dr Mackay, who has been fighting for tougher tobacco controls in Asia since 1984, for her 'tireless and courageous campaigning on behalf of patients and public health'. At an award ceremony in London, poll organisers said: 'As one of the first tobacco control advocates in Asia, Dr Mackay has played a leading role in the region's advancements in public policy, in articulating the harms of tobacco and exposing the nefarious tactics of the tobacco industry.'
Dr Mackay, a World Health Organisation and World Lung Foundation policy adviser, told the Sunday Morning Post she was 'just overwhelmed' at the award. 'I have the greatest respect for all my shortlisted colleagues, but I have been extremely touched by the outpouring of support I have received from all over the world - and especially from Hong Kong,' she said.
'When I started working in tobacco control in Asia in 1984, it was a lonely job, with no career structure and no pay. Few, if any, countries had even a single person working full-time on tobacco control. I also faced the formidable opposition of the transnational tobacco companies, who identified Asia as their future.'
Dr Mackay, 66, said there had since been a 'sea-change in attitudes' towards the fight for stricter tobacco controls in the intervening years but made it clear she believed the battle was still far from won.
