Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity Appoints Dr Nighat Arif as Ambassador

Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, which provides specialist nurses and support for seriously ill children across the UK, is delighted to announce that Dr Nighat Arif, resident GP for BBC Breakfast and This Morning, has been appointed as an ambassador for the charity.

A family GP, Dr Arif is based locally to the charity’s headquarters in Amersham, Buckinghamshire and is a “huge Roald Dahl fan”. She is regularly seen on BBC Breakfast with her giant BFG mug!

Dr Arif is also a medical educator and provides teaching to local trainee GPs as well as at national conferences.  She works as an outreach clinician, meeting with doctors, nurses, community teams and residents to discuss the unmet health needs for Pakistani communities who are less likely to engage with health professionals.

Dr Arif has personal experience of having a child with a serious illness as her son needed a liver transplant when he was 10 months old (he is now 5). 

Commenting on her appointment as ambassador to Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, Dr Arif said: “Roald Dahl has played an important part in my life. His fabulous stories helped me learn English when I first came to the UK: in fact, The Twits was the first book I read in English! I am thrilled to become involved and support Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity and look forward to building the awareness of its work across the health sector, my colleagues and patients. I know first-hand how important specialist nurses are to families dealing with a child who has a serious, lifelong illness and as a GP, specialist nurses are a godsend as they help take the pressure off everyone. It is a fantastic cause and I am truly delighted to get involved”.

Louise Griew, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity CEO said: “We are delighted that Dr Arif has agreed to become an ambassador for our charity. She brings a wealth of experience with her, both from her extensive work as a GP alongside her personal experience as a parent of a child with a serious illness. We look forward to working with her to help raise awareness about our network of Roald Dahl Specialist Nurses and the vital work they do.”

For more information, please visit www.roalddahlcharity.org