Kids Operating Room reaches major global surgery milestone and sets ambitious 2035 goal
A SCOTTISH charity has hit a major milestone, helping create capacity for one million life-changing operations around the world.
Kids Operating Room, founded by Garreth and Nicola Wood MBE, has created over 135 dedicated children’s operating rooms in 39 countries, from Ukraine and Bangladesh to Peru and the West Bank and supported the training of more than 70 surgeons.
The couple marked the achievement at Murrayfield Stadium, returning to an early ambition to one day help enough children to fill its 67,000 seats.
Garreth Wood MBE, co-founder, said: “Standing here today is quite surreal. In the early days, Nicola and I talked about whether we could ever help enough children to fill Murrayfield. Looking around at 67,000 seats, even that felt like an enormous ambition.
“Today, 728 operations take place every day in operating rooms created by Kids Operating Room. That’s enough to fill Murrayfield again every three months.
“It’s incredible to think about, but every one of those operations is about much more than a number. It’s a child getting the surgery they need and the chance to get back to being a child. That’s what this milestone means to us.”
The landmark achievement, and ambitious new goal, follows a review of the charity’s strategy and a new brand built around the idea “Make anything possible”, reflecting what safe surgery means for children: the chance to grow up and live their life to the full.
Nicola Wood MBE, co-founder, said: “We started with one surgeon, one operating room and one country. To now be talking about a million operations is something we could never have imagined.
“The real heroes of this story are the surgical teams we support, working in some of the toughest conditions on earth and doing incredible things every single day. This milestone is theirs as much as ours.”
David Cunningham, Chief Executive of Kids Operating Room, said: “Reaching one million children proves the model works. But there are still millions more waiting for surgery that could change their lives.
“That’s why we’ve sharpened our focus, backing local surgical teams, investing in innovation like solar-powered operating rooms and making children’s surgery a core part of every country’s health system.
“One million operations a year by 2035 is a big ambition, but that’s what it takes and we can only get there with governments, funders and partners behind us.”
The charity’s story began in 2015, when the Woods learned about Dr John Sekabira, Uganda’s only paediatric surgeon, working in Kampala to care for a population of 20 million children without a dedicated children’s operating room. After that first room opened, requests for more poured in, and the couple formally launched Kids Operating Room in 2018.
By 2021, the charity had created 50 operating rooms. Today, it has 136.
The charity transforms unused or derelict spaces, usually in public hospitals, and fits each room with 3,300 pieces of specialist equipment, shipped from its global operations centre in Dundee. Solar technology keeps the lights on during power cuts and bright, colourful artwork helps children feel safe before surgery.
Unlike “fly-in” medical missions, Kids Operating Room never sends in medical professionals from richer countries. Instead, it backs local surgical teams, funds specialist training in partnership with ministries of health, and works with local engineers to keep every room running, with the aim of handing each one over to the local health system as soon as possible.
The charity’s own data, drawn from their paediatric surgical database, shows the difference a dedicated operating room makes.
At one partner hospital in Nigeria, the rate of sepsis after surgery fell from 19.1% to 3.8%, and children’s average hospital stay dropped from 12 days to three. Surveys of school-age patients found that more than half of those missing school were doing so because of their surgical condition.
The charity estimates the operations made possible by its rooms will generate more than £23billion in economic benefit, as children who might otherwise have died or lived with lifelong disability grow up to work, earn and contribute to their communities.
Garreth Wood MBE, said: “Every one of those million is a child who can now run, play, go to school and grow up. Behind every number is a family who didn’t know if their child would make it, and a childhood that hasn’t been stolen by a treatable condition.”
An estimated 1.75 billion children still live in areas without reliable access to safe surgery . You can learn more about Kids Operating Room and help them reach these children here.
Garreth and Nicola Wood were both awarded MBEs in 2025 for services to international health and children’s surgery.