The children’s brain health charity.

Transforming what’s possible.

From an urgent call to an extraordinary journey

A male surgeon in scrubs and a surgical cap standing confidently in a hospital corridor.

Welcome to Gemini and thank you for taking the time to learn about our work.

Gemini began in 2018 with an urgent request to help save the lives of Safa and Marwa, two year old twins joined at the head. Their surgery demanded extraordinary skill and teamwork. It also brought home something that I have seen throughout my career as a neurosurgeon: successful operations can change a child’s life, but what happens before and afterwards matters just as much.

For a child facing highly complex neurosurgery (whether as a result of inherited conditions, brain injury, cancer or neurological conditions) that means bringing together the best possible surgery with the research, rehabilitation and family support that can help them recover and thrive. It means sharing knowledge and training others, so that more children can benefit from advances in care.

Gemini is a young charity with big ambitions. We are curious, creative and willing to explore new approaches, including technology and AI, where they can make a meaningful difference to children’s lives. Our work has grown beyond the extraordinary challenge that first brought us together, but the spirit behind it remains the same: to bring people and ideas together and give every child the best possible chance to survive, recover and thrive.

Professor Owase Jeelani
Founder, Gemini

Support Our Work
Two young children lying in a hospital bed, wearing colorful hospital gowns. The children appear to be resting or sleeping, with medical tubes and hospital accessories around them.
Two young children lying in a hospital bed, wearing hospital caps and casual clothing, with medical equipment around them.
A young child with brown hair and light skin reaching towards the camera with both hands, while sitting on an adult's lap, wearing a bear-themed outfit.

  • "Every child facing rare or complex neurosurgery deserves the best possible chance to live, recover and fulfil their potential.

    Gemini brings people and expertise together to make that possible through surgery, research, rehabilitation, and education and training."

    Professor Owase Jeelani MBE, Founder

What We Do

  • Medical team performing surgery in an operating room with surgeons wearing green scrubs, masks, and surgical caps, using medical instruments under bright surgical lights.

    Surgery

    “When you find all your roads and paths blocked, he will show you a secret way that no one knows.”

    Rumi, 13th century Turkish Poet and Philosopher

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  • A young boy sitting in a wheelchair in a hospital hallway, holding a plush fox toy, smiling at the camera. In the background, two women and a man, possibly medical staff, are engaged in a conversation near the wall decorated with yellow stars.

    Rehabilitation

    “The missing link between survival and a full life is too often the lack of specialist rehabilitation”

    Prof Owase Jeelani

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  • A woman scientist examining a detailed computer image of a human brain on a monitor in a laboratory setting.

    Research

    “Research is formalised curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”

    Zora Neale Hurston

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  • A man in a suit speaking at a podium in front of a group of people in a conference room. A large screen displays the presenter's name, Noor ul Owase Jeelani, and details about a medical presentation on pineal lesions at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

    Education & Training

    “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

    Nelson Mandela

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Testimonials from Clinicians

  • In September 2021, Gemini Untwined supported the team at Israel’s Soroka University Medical centre to perform the country’s first separation of craniopagus twins.

    “I wish to express our highest gratitude from our team and Soroka University Medical Centre to Mr. Jeelani for his fantastic assistance and perfect teamwork we have done together. Personally speaking, I am deeply privileged for this opportunity to work with such a great surgeon. Of note, he also conquered the heart of our team with his magnificent personality and attitude and for that, I am forever in debt to Mr. Jeelani.”

    Mickey Gideon, MD, MBA
    Director, Pediatric Neurosurgery Unit Soroka University Medical Centre

  • In July 2020, the surgical team from Gemini Untwined successfully separated craniopagus twin boys Yigit and Derman from Turkey.

    “As for our twins, they are still receiving high-level physical therapy at Ankara City Hospital after Dr. Jeelani’s excellent surgery, they have made great progress, they are able to continue their lives individually. Our goal is to make them even better. The twins’ parents are also very happy with the latest situation. They have a lot of greetings to the team, they always pray.”

    Doctors from Turkey
    Who referred the boys to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital

  • “This is the first surgery of this complexity in Latin America and was made possible thanks to the leadership, expertise and infectious energy of Noor ul Owase Jeelani and the Gemini team.

    Since the parents of the boys came from their home in the Roraima region to Rio to seek our help two and a half years ago, they had become part of our family here in the hospital. We are delighted that the surgery went so well and the boys and their family have had such a life-changing outcome.”

    Gabriel Mufarrej
    Head of Paediatric Surgery at Instituto Estadual do Cérebro Paulo Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil