Agimol Pradeep, an Indian-origin nurse based in the UK, has won the Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award 2026 and a prize of $250,000 for her work in promoting organ and stem-cell donation, particularly among the South Asian community.
Kerala Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan presented the award money to Pradeep at an event in Kochi on Saturday, recognising her sustained efforts to raise awareness about organ donation and address the shortage of ethnically matched donors.
Pradeep is a senior transplant coordinator at King’s College Hospital and an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Salford. She emerged as the winner from more than 134,000 registrations spanning 214 countries and economies. Ten finalists were shortlisted through a selection process involving Ernst & Young LLP, a screening jury and a grand jury.
The finalists were assessed on their professional achievements, leadership, innovation, impact and contribution to nursing. Nurses from countries including India, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, China, Colombia, Namibia, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea featured among the final 10.
“I have seen how a shortage of ethnically matched donors can leave patients from minority communities waiting for a life-saving transplant,” Pradeep said, according to The Week.
She described the award as an opportunity to take her work further and expand efforts to increase organ and stem-cell donation.
“Half of the prize will support Upahaar and my mission to give more patients with organ failure and blood cancer a chance at life, by expanding organ and stem cell donation and taking this work to communities and countries where it is most needed,” she said.
Bridging the donor gap
Pradeep co-founded Upahaar, a charitable organisation working to improve awareness of organ donation among South Asian communities. The initiative was established after she identified the disproportionate impact of donor shortages on South Asian patients.
The organisation has helped build a donor pool, with more than 10,000 stem-cell donors registered so far. Through her work, Pradeep has sought to address cultural and community-level barriers that can discourage people from registering as donors.
Speaking about the challenges facing transplant patients, Pradeep said that even countries with advanced healthcare systems continue to face significant demand for organs.
“In the UK, we have a dedicated organ transplant service where we have a national transplant waiting list. We can provide transparent care to patients who are struggling with organ failure,” she told Gulf News.
However, she noted that the availability of transplant services does not eliminate the shortage of donors.
“Despite saying that, we are losing around three patients every day with organ failure, even in a developed country like the UK,” she said.
Highlighting the nursing shortage
At the award ceremony, Satheesan also highlighted the need to strengthen the global nursing workforce. He referred to the World Health Organization’s estimate of a worldwide shortage of millions of nurses and said Kerala planned to expand its nursing workforce as healthcare remained a priority for the state.
Pradeep, meanwhile, said greater attention was needed to support nurses throughout their careers. She pointed to systemic barriers that can prevent highly trained nurses from returning to the profession and said she wanted to invest in nursing education and training.
“I have seen how systemic barriers can prevent highly skilled nurses from returning to the profession,” she said, adding that empowering nurses through education could help create more healthcare changemakers.
The Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award was launched in 2021 to highlight the work of nurses across different healthcare settings, communities and disciplines. The award seeks to showcase the contribution of nurses and recognise their role in shaping healthcare.
Aster DM Quality Care Ltd Executive Director Alisha Moopen said the stories of the finalists demonstrated that nurses play a role not only in delivering healthcare but also in influencing how healthcare evolves.
The ceremony also featured a special message from World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who congratulated the finalists and acknowledged the contribution of nurses to healthcare systems worldwide.
For Pradeep, the award provides an opportunity to expand a mission that began with a focus on improving access to donors for patients from communities that remain underrepresented in organ and stem-cell donation.
