I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism with me,

Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. My guest today is quite simply one of the world's

best known and most prolific heart surgeons, a man who pioneered

high profile and often controversial procedures, but whose help drive huge medical progress.

Sir Magdiakoub is Emeritus Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, so that's Heart and Lungs,

at Imperial College London, and Director of Research at Harefield Hospital's Magdi Yakub Institute.

Inspired by a surgeon father and impacted by the tragic early death of his aunt from a heart condition,

Sir Magdi's medical career has deeply personal roots.

And alongside surgery, he's led numerous research projects to further our understanding

of and ability to treat heart disease. Over a career spanning more than six decades,

Magde's carried out around 2,000 heart transplants, earning him the moniker the Leonardo

da Vinci of heart surgery. But at times his work, such as early unsuccessful transplant

attempts, attracted serious public criticism, not an easy thing for anyone to weather. Today, of course,

the transplant landscape is very different, thanks in no small part to Magli himself. And, as he puts

it, science progresses by imaginative leaps. The only way is to keep

pushing forward. Professor Sambagdiakou, welcome to the Life Scientific. Thank you very much.

I alluded there to the controversy around heart transplants when they were first trialed.

What was it, do you think, that made this such a controversial issue for some when others, including you, saw it as the future?

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