Dr Peter Carey has been awarded the Beacon Prize for Leadership for his work in co-founding the Cambodia Trust and leading its expansion across Cambodia into Timor Leste, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, making a positive impact on the lives of over 30,000 landmine survivors and other disadvantaged disabled people.

Peter is just one of six recipients of the 2008 Beacon Prize and joins the ranks of previous Beacon winners such as Sir Bob Geldof, Jamie Oliver and environmentalist, Zac Goldsmith who have all been recognised for their charitable work through what has become known as the 'Nobel Prize of the charity world', first coined by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The Cambodia Trust has developed services and training programmes in four developing countries and rehabilitation centres have been established to help disabled people and train local staff. Peter helped to found the Cambodian School of Prosthetics and Orthotics (CSPO), where students from Cambodia and other developing countries are trained to internationally-recognised standards to prescribe and fit prosthetic limbs and braces.

Peter has a strong commitment to ensuring that his projects are sustainable and so has placed great emphasis on working in partnership with local government and NGOs. The aim is to build local capacity so that projects can eventually be handed over to local, trained management.

The results have been enormous: 122 students have graduated from CSPO, including enough Cambodians to staff all the rehabilitation centres in Cambodia. Around 30,500 devices are being fitted by CSPO graduates annually, enabling 1,000's of landmine survivors and other disabled people to gain self-sufficiency. Over 80% of children receiving rehabilitation at the centres go on to start school once their mobility is improved; over 230 disabled children receive the support they need to attend school every year; around 150 disabled adults a year are assisted to start vocational training or on-the-job training, with 80% accessing work thereafter; 612 adults have received start-up support to establish small businesses; 9 former CSPO students have graduated with Bachelor's degrees, enabling a phasing out of expatriate staff at CSPO as Cambodians qualify as lecturers and leaders.

CSPO has also trained prosthetist-orthotists from Afghanistan, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Timor Leste, Georgia, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Burma, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Martyn Lewis, former Chairman of Beacon, who will be hosting Tuesday's Prize Ceremony, said: "The impact of Peter's work is truly outstanding, not only because of the sheer numbers of landmine victims and disabled people who have received assistance, but also because of the local capacity he has built through training up professionals and working closely with local people."

Speaking just ahead of the ceremony, Peter said: "I am delighted to win a Beacon Prize and I sincerely hope that it will focus attention what can be a forgotten problem - the physical disabilities that landmine survivors and all other victims of war can be left with. A great deal can be done for them and lives can be rebuilt but this requires international support and resource."

Peter will receive his award at a Prize Ceremony on Tuesday 18 November 2008 at 'Room by the River', Southbank, London, SE1. All six winners will be inaugurated as Beacon Fellows, a community of Beacon Prize winners who together champion charitable causes across the globe and nurture a wider culture of giving in the UK. The ceremony will also see the overall Beacon Prize winner announced, receiving £30,000 to donate to the charitable cause of their choice.

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Notes for Editors

For further information on the Beacon Prize, winners' biographies and photos of the 2008 award recipients or on the Beacon Fellowship Charitable Trust please contact Maeve Anglim on 020 7203 8290 or maeve.anglim@beaconfellowship.org.uk

The full list for Beacon Prize winners for 2008 are:

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Ms Vikki George Beacon Young Philanthropist
For setting up 'PostPals', a website that invites people to make contact with a child with a chronic illness

Mr Tom Henderson Beacon Prize for New Initiatives
For setting up ShelterBox Trust to provide humanitarian aid worldwide for people displaced by natural and other disasters

Mr Paul Barry-Walsh Beacon Prize
For Creative Giving For setting up Frederick's Foundation which helps those who are disadvantaged to set up their own business

Mr Richard Moore Beacon Special Prize
For founding Children in Crossfire which works towards the eradication of poverty

Mr Kevin Jenkins (OBE) Beacon Prize for Community Builder
For his work with the children and young people of Newham

Dr Peter Carey Beacon Prize for Leadership
For his work with the Cambodia Trust

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The Beacon Fellowship is a charitable organisation set up to encourage individual contributions to charitable and social causes and to celebrate and showcase best practice in giving.  Beacon awards annual prizes to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to charitable causes or to organisations that benefit the public.

An overall winner will be selected every year, who will be given a cash award of £30,000, to be invested in an innovative way by the winner in a charity of their choice.  Beacon believes that by highlighting the achievements of the prize winners and showcasing innovation and best practice in philanthropy, others will be inspired and encouraged to make their own contribution.

The objectives of the Beacon Fellowship Charitable Trust are as follows:

• To run a nationally recognised prize scheme through which the charity sector can acknowledge and reward exceptional philanthropic acts by individuals (giving of time, leadership, money, skills and ideas)
• To highlight motivating role models and forms of giving to inspire and educate the next generation of donors
• To showcase and implement innovative grant-making techniques through an annual grant by Beacon
• To develop a Fellowship body of prize winners who, as they grow in number, are an active force in the charity sector and help raise general awareness and educate the general public

www.beaconfellowship.org.uk