‘A palette of colours’: Life lessons from volunteer surgeon Ankur Pandya
As he receives an OBE, plastic surgeon and longstanding Operation Smile UK volunteer Ankur shares what he’s learned in life and work.
Ankur Pandya was getting ready for the day ahead when the news came in. At first it was the WhatsApp messages that lit up his phone screen. He dismissed them as a mistake. Then the flurry of emails started: “Congratulations!” “Well done on the OBE!”
Due to unexpected circumstances, Ankur hadn’t received any prior notice, but the news was official. He had been awarded an OBE in The King’s Birthday Honours 2025.
“My family were absolutely thrilled, over the moon,” he says. “For me, it meant even more that the citation recognised my contribution to international humanitarian work and educational services, as well as the Armed Forces.”
The ‘wake-up call’ that started it all
As the OBE citation suggests – and the many titles and qualifications you’ll find in his bio on our Medical Sub-Committee – Ankur’s career is a busy one. So how did he come to volunteer for Operation Smile UK?
Ankur completed his training in general surgery, but soon realised he loved the reconstructive element of this discipline and, in particular, using his skills to help change children’s lives.
While working as a plastic surgeon in Chichester in 2004, he first heard about our charity. His anaesthetist at the time just happened to be Operation Smile UK Co-Founder, and medical volunteer Phil McDonald. “I’d recently undergone chemotherapy and survived a terminal form of lymphoma, and that was actually a lovely wake-up call for me,” Ankur explains. “I’d always wanted to do voluntary work, and now I was ready to commit my life and profession to doing so.”
A special kind of surgery
Ankur wasn’t up to date with cleft lip and palate surgery techniques, so his first three volunteer postings to Kenya, Morocco and Jordan made the most of his reconstructive surgical skills to support people recovering from burns. (You can read more about his experiences in this story.)
On subsequent programmes, he learned the latest cleft surgery techniques alongside fellow volunteer surgeon Chris Weatherley-White, and has now shared his skills on more than 50 surgical programmes for Operation Smile.
Ankur is proud but unphased by this incredible achievement: “Surgeons are a bit nerdy so yes, it’s nice to aim towards milestones because it motivates you to keep making a difference,” he says. “But so long as I can keep operating safely, I will keep volunteering.”
Above and beyond for our patients
A longstanding voluntary career has left Ankur with many memorable moments. The stories he shares all recall times when the team went above and beyond to change a patient’s life.
During a busy surgical programme in Assam, Ankur admits that – with more than 2,000 children to assess for surgery – the screening days felt a bit like a “conveyor belt”. But when one father brought in his child for assessment, something made Ankur stop and look up. The father himself was living with a cleft lip.
“I asked him, ‘Why wouldn’t you want this surgery too?’ and he just started weeping,” Ankur recalls. “And he said, ‘There are so many children here, I can’t just put myself in front of them.’”
As surgical team leader, Ankur resolved that they would operate on both father and son. In a careful balancing act, the team performed surgery on the father under local anaesthetic, while nurses cared for the young child during his recovery until his father was well enough to look after him again.
No-one left behind
On another programme in Jordan, Ankur and his team fundraised so that a Syrian refugee child could receive surgery.
And in Bolivia, one mother had attended four previous programmes with her child, but regretfully they weren’t eligible for surgery as they developed a chest infection each time they made the mountainous journey.
“This time we decided to look after the child for a full five days and give them anything they needed in terms of chest therapy,” Ankur says. “We were able to operate on the second-to-last day, and then we looked after the child for another two days.”
Getting your wings, keeping grounded
It hardly seems possible for those of us who find one job enough of a balancing act, but Wing Commander Ankur Pandya has complemented his surgical achievements with a longstanding career in the Royal Air Force (RAF).
He had been fascinated with the military when training as a surgeon in India as a young man but, “like all good Indian parents, they made sure I never got close to it”, he smiles. It was only when training in reconstructive surgery at East Grinstead – home to the famous Guinea Pig Club of injured Second World War aircrew – that Ankur fell in love with the air force all over again.
He went through RAF cadet training at 39, holding his own among the “muscle-bound 23-year-olds” to receive the Best Cadet trophy from the then-Prince Charles. (Ankur’s hoping life will come full-circle if he has the honour of being presented with his OBE by His Majesty The King.)
Not long into his military career in 2003, Ankur was deployed to serve in the Iraq War and later to Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. During these times, he felt the value of volunteering for Operation Smile even more deeply.
“I was surrounded by colleagues deeply affected by nightmares, PTSD, loss of confidence,” he says. “I used to go on an Operation Smile programme both before and after military deployment. It kept me absolutely grounded.”
Ankur also acknowledges the incredible support of his commanding officers over the years, who have gone above and beyond to accommodate his volunteer work by arranging extra leave.
“Live life, make a splash and just have fun!”
While working to advance surgical standards and advocate for better healthcare access worldwide, Ankur’s ‘day-job’ for 25 years has been as a consultant plastic surgeon at Portsmouth’s Queen Alexandra Hospital. He also supports fellow medics in their education through lecturing, mentorship and assessment roles.
“It’s been a fulfilling career,” he reflects. “One of the things which I always tell my juniors is that life has got a palette of colours. And most people try and live their lives in monochrome. For example they think, ‘I’m a military guy, I should finish my career at this particular rank’ – and that’s all they focus on. So I say: live life, make a splash. You have the colours, use all your possible avenues of interest. It’s OK if you don’t reach the top, but just have fun!”
A life lesson for us all. Thank you, Ankur, for your dedication to making everyone’s lives more colourful.
Feeling inspired? Find out more about volunteering for Operation Smile UK.