A DOCTOR who has spent years working to improve relations between minority communities has been made an MBE in the New Year Honours list.

Dr Qadir Bakhsh, of Langfords in Buckhurst Hill, is currently a non-executive director at NHS West Essex, and is a founder member of the London East Three Faiths Forum.

He has also been the director of the Race Equality Council in Kent, and worked as both a non-executive director and vice-chairman of NHS Redbridge.

The 66-year-old said: “I feel very proud and honoured at the recognition.

“When I started doing some work 40 years ago I didn't have the idea that something like this would come of it.

“You do it selflessly, trying to contribute to the community and to give back.”

Dr Bakhsh has two daughters – one of whom, 36-year-old Nadia, currently works as a consultant at Whipps Cross in Leytonstone – and three grandchildren.

He said he felt the biggest challenge he had faced was establishing the race relations unit in Waltham Forest in 1986.

Dr Bakhsh added: “It was very challenging because going back nearly 30 years it was a very different world. There was blatant resistance.

“Now it's very different because the world has moved on and communities live together much better.”