In the Wars

Born in war-torn Afghanistan, Waheed Arian's earliest memories are of bombs. Fleeing the conflict with his family, he spent much of his childhood in refugee camps in Pakistan, living sometimes ten to a room without basic sanitation or access to education. After he contracted tuberculosis, his first-hand experience of the power of medicine inspired Waheed to dedicate his life to healing others. But how does a boy with nothing hope to become a doctor? Waheed largely taught himself, from textbooks bought from street-sellers, and learned English from the BBC World Service. Smuggled to the UK at fifteen with just $100 in his pocket, he was advised to set his sights on becoming a taxi driver. But he had bigger ambitions. He studied all hours and was accepted to read medicine at Cambridge University, and went on to become a doctor in the NHS. In 2015 he founded Arian Teleheal, a pioneering global charity that connects doctors in war zones and low-resource countries with their counterparts in the US, UK, Europe and Australia. Together, learning from each other, they save and change lives - the lives of millions of people just like Waheed. Dr Arian has been working A&E on the Covid frontline for over a year.