A global campaign to promote handwashing, pioneering work in stroke prevention, and improving care for kidney dialysis patients, scooped three of the top prizes at the first ever BMJ Group Awards ceremony last night.

The winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award - voted for by BMJ readers and presented by Stella Dutton, CEO of BMJ Group - went to Professor Judith Longstaff Mackay for her contribution to the fight against tobacco across the world.

The BMJ Group Awards, held in association with The Health Foundation, recognise and celebrate excellence in healthcare across the globe. The categories reflect the values of the Group and include awards for corporate global responsibility, clinical research, healthcare communication and medical education.

The ceremony, held in London last night, was presented by broadcaster and comedienne Sandi Toksvig and was attended by some of the most influential men and women in healthcare from around the world.

Dr Val Curtis PhD, Director of the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine won the award for Health Communicator of the Year for getting a simple message out across the world - hand washing can save your life.

Dr Curtis persuaded large multinational corporations such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever to join an initiative to promote handwashing with soap to reduce diarrhoea in developing countries, which kills in the order of two million children a year. Her work led to the first ever Global Handwashing Day in October last year, and 20 countries now have national hand washing programmes…