It seems crazy to think that, in January, when I first spoke to Dr Tunc Tiryaki about his humanitarian work, we were in a restaurant in Paris, enjoying a post-conference glass of wine. How times have changed. On February 6, a disastrous and deadly earthquake struck southern and central Turkey and western Syria, causing widespread damage and tens of thousands of fatalities. Mere days after launching the London Regenerative Institute with Dr Steve Cohen at Corinthia London, Dr Tiryaki is on the ground in his native Turkey as part of the first acute disaster relief task force organised by the Turkish Society of Plastic Surgeons.