A LEADING cardiologist and the founder of Leicester’s Caribbean Carnival have become the latest local leading lights to receive one of the city’s highest civic honours.
The City of Leicester Award recognises people whose outstanding achievements have had a positive and wider-reaching impact on the city, and who have been a source of inspiration to its residents.
It has now been conferred upon the distinguished cardiologist, researcher and academic Professor Sir Nilesh Samani and the campaigner and founder of Leicester Caribbean Carnival Elvy Morton.
The awards were made by Deputy Lord Mayor of Leicester Cllr Bhupen Dave during a ceremony held at Leicester’s Town Hall on Tuesday 17 February.
Professor Samani was born in Kenya and moved to the UK with his family in 1971, settling in Leicester. He was part of the first intake of medical students in the new Leicester Medical School in 1975 and graduated in 1981 with distinction.
He went on to become a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital in 1993, helping to establish its reputation as a major cardiac centre providing high quality care to the people of Leicestershire and beyond.
Following this, he was appointed Professor of Cardiology at the University of Leicester in 1997, before taking up the prestigious post of British Heart Foundation Chair in Cardiology in 2003.
He has received a Platinum Clinical Excellence Award from the NHS and was knighted for his services to medicine in 2015, becoming the first Asian to be knighted in the city. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Leicestershire in 2008.
Professor Samani was nominated for the award by the late Manjula Sood MBE.
Elvy Morton was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis before arriving in the UK as a 23-year-old nurse as part of the Windrush generation in 1958.
She moved to Leicester in 1961 and went on to study catering and teaching which led to her being involved in outreach and community work at Moat College.
Throughout her life, Elvy has been a tireless champion for the Black community in Leicester.
Among her trailblazing achievements was her role in a local campaign to diversify representation of children in toy shops and mainstream retail. She fought to ensure that young Black girls could see themselves reflected in the toys they played with. Her persistence led the former Lewis’ department store to introduce Black dolls into their range.
Following racial tensions in Leicester and other English cities in the early 1980s, Elvy Morton, with a small group of Caribbean people from the Highfields area, founded the Leicester Caribbean Carnival. The aim was to promote togetherness and integration and to inspire artistic expression and cultural understanding for all the people of Leicester.
The first Caribbean Carnival held in Leicester was in August 1985 and for many years was the largest UK Caribbean Carnival outside of London.
Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Bhupen Dave, said: “It is a huge honour to be able to recognise the contributions made to our local community by these two leading lights
“Both have been tremendous advocates for Leicester over many years and have made a lasting and positive impact on the lives of so many people who live here and I am delighted that they have received this award.”
City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “The City of Leicester Award was introduced to honour and recognise trailblazers like Nilesh and Elvy and they are both entirely deserving of this award.
“They have demonstrated a lifetime of commitment to helping others and will have been an inspiration to many. The city can be rightly proud of these two extraordinary people and their outstanding achievements.”
The City of Leicester Award was introduced in 2022 to recognise individuals and groups who have contributed to the educational, cultural, civic or economic life of the city, or through their achievements, have gained the city wider recognition.
The first recipients of the City of Leicester award were Leicester City chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaphrabha and his late father, Vichai Srivaadhanaprabha.
Other previous recipients include members of the University of Leicester team who led the search for the remains of King Richard III, the founder of Leicester’s Comedy festival Geoff Rowe, campaigner Pamela Campbell-Morris, and the EAGA (Emmanu'-EL Apostolic Gospel Academy) Gospel Choir.