The widow of one of the world’s richest men has donated £60 million to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak’s gift will help find new treatments for children suffering from rare diseases including genetic heart defects and muscle disorders.
The donation from the Sheikha, the widow of United Arab Emirates founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, whose fortune was once estimated at $20 billion, means that Great Ormond Street can build the world’s first centre of its kind for research into the life-threatening conditions.
Hundreds of clinicians and researchers will be housed in the building which is expected to open in 2018.
The centre is a partnership between Great Ormond Street, University College London and the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.
The Sheikha said: “The most important work that we can undertake as a global society is to improve the health of future generations so that communities can thrive and grow.
“To reach this goal, we must form collaborative partnerships that have the potential to benefit all children.”
Her donation is one of the largest that the hospital has ever received.
Previous gifts have included £15 million from Aditya Mittal, heir to steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, in 2008 which went towards a special medical unit for children with heart and lung conditions.
Professor Michael Arthur, president and provost of UCL, said: “This state-of-the-art centre will enable a step change in research.
“In particular it will drive our experts to progress new and personalised ways to diagnose and treat these children by further developing gene and cell therapies and manufacturing complex medical devices.”
The Sheikha was represented by Professor Maha Barakat, who visited Great Ormond Street patients to see the pioneering work that is already being done.
