When he was growing up, Raghib Ali thought the chances of a child on free school meals going to Cambridge University and becoming a doctor were “almost zero”.
But that is exactly the path his life ended up taking.
The leading epidemiologist is among those recognised in the 2022 Queen’s birthday honours, receiving an OBE after leading his academic role and volunteering on the NHS front line during the Covid pandemic on four occasions.
Dr Ali said he hoped his award will inspire children from similar backgrounds as his own.
“Growing up in the early 80s, it was quite tough in my situation. My father lost his job, lost his eyesight. My mother was struggling to keep the house running,” he told a press conference for the Queen’s birthday honours.
“It was a difficult time. And I was attending a very poorly-performing school on free school meals.”
The free school meals scheme is available to the most disadvantaged pupils in the UK - a group who have long faced an attainment gap with their better-off peers.
This has been threatened further by the Covid pandemic, which has led to warnings of a “step change” decline in social mobility.
Dr Ali said a child of his background in the 1980s had statistically little chance of going on to the UK’s top universities.
He managed to get a scholarship to a better school when he was 11 years old.
“But that opportunity is obviously not there for all children,” he told The Independent.
From there, he went onto study medicine at the University of Cambridge, where he would later work as an academic, and become a consultant in acute medicine at Oxford University Hospitals.
An OBE has now been added to the list for Dr Ali’s services to the NHS and the Covid response.
Dr Ali said he believes the situation has somewhat improved since he was a child.
But he added: “It is very difficult still for children from that background to achieve their full potential.”
“I think it is something we need to give more attention to to make sure the opportunities are there.”
There have been calls - including from a former Tory education secretary - for it to be expanded to cover all families on universal credit and run throughout the summer holidays to support those struggling in the cost-of-living crisis.
“All children should have adequate food to eat, whether they are in school or out of school,” Dr Ali told The Independent.
“We need to make sure, particularly at this time in the cost-of-living crisis, that the poorest families are supported.”
