Biography

Dr Judith Longstaff Mackay (born 1943, Yorkshire, England) is a Hong Kong–based medical doctor and anti-smoking advocate who led a campaign against tobacco in Asia from 1984 onwards, campaigning for tax increases to discourage youth smoking, for the creation of smoke-free areas, and against tobacco promotion. Her main interests are tobacco in low income countries, tobacco promotion aimed at women, and challenging the transnational tobacco companies.

She completed her medical training in Edinburgh and is now a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and London. She holds professorships at the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine in Beijing and the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. She is a Senior Policy Advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) Tobacco Free Initiative. She has received an award from His Majesty the King of Thailand for her tobacco control work. After giving up her paid hospital job in Hong Kong she worked without pay for 20 years on tobacco control issues , supported by her doctor husband John Mackay.

In 1989 she started the Hong Kong based Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control. She was awarded the Hong Kong Bauhinia Star medal and in 2007 she received the Time Magazine 100 award for her work; in 2008 an MBE from HM Queen Elizabeth, and in 2009 the first-ever British Medical Journal Award for Lifetime Achievement. Currently she works for the World Lung Foundation component of the Bloomberg Initiative to reduce tobacco use in low- and middle-income countries. She has been named as one of the three most dangerous people in the world by the tobacco industry. She is co-author of the Tobacco Atlas and the Cancer Atlas as well as other publications and was instrumental in the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Treaty.

Time website : Dr Judith Mackay named one of the "most influential people in the world"

In early May, Time Magazine named Dr Judith Mackay one of the "most influential people in the world" in recognition of her role as a leading campaigner for stricter tobacco control measures and vigilant critic of tobacco industry practices. As a senior policy advisor to the World Health Organization, Mackay was one of the early architects of what is today a global momentum to implement smoke-free public places and workplaces and proven, effective tobacco control measures in countries around the world. A Hong Kong resident for 40 years, Mackay was also a key player in the development of the landmark WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, one of the most widely and rapidly endorsed treaties in United Nations history.

Mackay was among those honoured by Time Magazine at a ceremony 8 May 2007 at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Time Warner Building in New York. Among others named in Times Magazine's "Top 100" was New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who spearheaded the city's successful public health campaign to make all workplaces smoke-free. In a separate initiative, Mr Bloomberg last year donated US $125 million to create a global initiative aimed at reducing tobacco use in developing countries where the number of smokers and health burden from tobacco use is highest. WHO is a key partner in the Bloomberg Global Initiative.

WHO Senior Policy Adviser Mackay wins BMJ's Lifetime Achievement Award

Judith Mackay, a senior policy adviser on tobacco control to the World Health Organization, has been awarded the British Medical Journal Group's first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr Mackay was praised for her tireless and courageous campaigning on behalf of patients and public health care.

Dr Mackay was instrumental in developing the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which obligates countries to control tobacco for the good of their populations. More than 160 countries have ratified to the international treaty.

Dr Mackay was given the award on Thursday, 2 April 2009, at a ceremony in London.

"Public health has always been the poor relation to curative medicine when it comes to funding and recognition," she said. "This award is therefore a great acknowledgment of the importance of public health in general, and tobacco control in particular. I think my biggest contribution has been motivating and supporting others, moving tobacco control in low-income countries from the very lonely job of a quarter of a century ago to one today involving hundreds of people.”