Professor May Ng awarded OBE for services to people with autism
Professor May Ng has been awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen for her commitments to improving the care of people with diabetes and people with autism.
Prof May Ng, a multi-award winning paediatrician has made a huge difference to individuals, families and communities through her outstanding and dedicated work in improving and delivering high-quality patient-centred diabetes care, raising autism awareness and developing online e-learning education to healthcare professionals in the UK and internationally.
She is known globally as a leader in her field and her career spans more than 25 years focusing on helping children and young people with diabetes and improving the delivery of education to professionals around the world.
Born in Malaysia as an ethnic minority Chinese, she gained a full scholarship to study GCE O and A Levels in Singapore and attained full scholarship to read medicine in the University of Sydney, Australia. She has served more than 2 decades in the NHS, written over 150 publications and authored 3 books “Me and My Hormones- what can go wrong” and “A Journey with Brendan” which details the personal struggles shefaced raising her autistic son. Her latest book on “A guide to Type 1 Diabetes Management, Technology and Everything else you need to know” will be out this summer.
The OBE is a latest honour in Prof Ng’s long-list of accomplishments. She has fund- raised over £50,000 for her local diabetes charity and over £10,000 to raise autism awareness the past year. Last year her team won the North West Parliamentary award for Excellence in Healthcare, and Prof Ng was awarded The University of Liverpool Alumni Award in 2020, Diabetes UK Mary McKinnon award in 2019 and the Diabetes Quality in Care award in 2016 amongst many others.
She is the UK Chair of the Association of Children’s Diabetes Clinicians, Chair of the NIHR Diabetes research steering group for children and sits on the NICE Diabetes Committee as well as the European Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and International Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) Council leading on international efforts to increase free access to education and training using e-learning platforms. She has also led on several initiatives such as setting up the first Southeast Asia Regional Diabetes Network and webinars program as voluntary Chief Medical Advisor for Action4Diabetes – a UK-based charity that saves lives of type 1 diabetes children in low-middle income countries in Southeast Asia. Her energy, passion, expertise and ability to build relationships with a range of people, from local communities to international government policy makers have enabled her to improve the lives of thousands of people around the world.
As someone who has achieved a remarkable 5 academic degrees, an MBBS with Honours, an MSc, an LLM, a PhD, an MBA, and a mother to 3 children, 2 of whom has special needs – Brendan who is autistic with high support needs, Darren who is born deaf and Corinne born premature – Prof May Ng said: “I am surprised and deeply humbled to be honoured by this award. I wish to express my immense gratitude for the support from my family, my parents, my team, colleagues, the children and families whom I work with. Throughout my career, I have always been driven by a passion to improve the care of people living with diabetes and other endocrine conditions, and to advocate for autistic people due to my own personal experiences.
“This award reflects the dedication of so many people, and my greatest hope is that the recognition afforded by the OBE focuses attention on the continued efforts to improve diabetes care and raise autism awareness globally.”
When asked if she is satisfied with her achievements, she said: “Life is not a race and there is no finishing line. For me, life is a journey of continuous learning and giving.”