OM Prof Keighley Wins Sternberg Active Life Award

Professor Mike Keighley (OM ) was among five recipients of The Times Sternberg Active Life Awards 2024.

The awards were for people over 70 years of age who had made a significant contribution to society in older age.

Five awards were made, Mike Keighley was the recipient of one of these.

Mike Keighley Emeritus Professor University of Birmingham received his award for Founding the MASIC Foundation in 2016 in order to support women and raise awareness of the plight of women who had sustained severe perineal trauma during childbirth: a hidden taboo about which injured women were constrained to share with others. The award committee noted that he had raised £100k from four Diva Opera performances before and after COVID to help fund the charity’s activities. The last of these had been at Monkton also to support bursaries for disadvantaged pupils.

The inspiration for establishing the MASIC foundation came from Mike’s visits to CMC Vellore in South India as a volunteer over 10 years and he remains a Trustee of Friends of Vellore. It was in Vellore that he developed the concept of a simple inexpensive device for treating fistulas, and with three collaborators have secured two NIHR (National Institute for Health research) grants worth over £2.4 m.

The committee recognised the particular contribution of the MASIC Foundation in the present year, which has been pivotal in advising the National Maternal Trauma enquiry co-chaired by Theo Clarke MP and Rosie Duffield MP. The Committee report to parliament with recommendations in May.

The committee recognised that to make these charitable activities possible Mike has continued to run his own legal business as an expert witness and despite his busy life was able to keep the community church alive with the help of others in the Management and Reader team during a long interregnum.