A WARRINGTON public health doctor has joined the likes of Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela and Jesse Jackson in receiving a prestigious American award.

Dr Alexander Gatherer, of Stonehill Close, Appleton, has been awarded the American Public Health Association’s Presidential Citation for his work for the World Health Organisation in improving health in European prisons.

He took on the role of advisor to the WHO Health in Prisons project after retiing from being director of public health in Oxford.

At its conception the project involved eight countries in Europe and now has 39 members.

“Most people are very ambivalent about health in prisons but from a public health point of view it is a major challenge,” said Dr Gatherer.

“It’s where you have the highest concentration of people with HIV and people with resistant tuberculosis. People have to realise that in all countries the vast majority of prisoners are in and out of prisons, so if they have a bad disease and we don’t take the opportunity to treat it while they are in prison then they go back home with the disease and spread it around.”

He is modest about receiving the Presidential Citation – an award not given annually – but only when there is unusual merit to warrant it.

“The thinking behind giving it to me is to spread the idea of the programme around the world,” he said.

“America wants what Europe already has. This is something the rest of the world would gain from and the Americans are particularly keen.

“You don’t mention my name in the same breath as Nelson Mandela!”

Dr Gatherer is no stranger to awards, being the honorary secretary of the Oxford Medical Society, a fellow of Royal Society for the Promotion of Health and a life member of the British Medical Association.

In 2006 he was awarded the Alwyn Smith Award by the Royal College of Physicians Faculty of Public Health for making the most outstanding contribution to the health of the public through research or public health practice.

He began his public health career in Warrington under Dr Eric Moore, whose name is familiar in Warrington as he has a GP surgery named after him.

His five years in the town were the most productive of his career, as he gained qualifications in public health and industrial health, the higher degree of MD with commendation from Aberdeen. He married a Thelwall girl and they had their first son.

He worked all over England before settling in Oxford for 20 years, but now has retured to Appleton with his second wife Myra.