Our first meeting this month was special for two reasons.
Firstly we managed to get Dr Matt Wheeler, who was a successful nominee from our Club in being awarded a RI Scholarship to study medicine in Canada to come and address members on his time at McMaster Univerity in Hamilton, Ontario.
Secondly to have a “raid” from the Rotary Club of Wellington, who supported our nomination for Dr Matt Wheeler, with 17 attendees at our meeting, helping to swell our ranks and to give Matt a great audience to address. We owe a great debt to Marion Eades, Chair of the District Scholarship for her leadership in steering Matt’s application to Rotary International and gaining him a very substantial financial grant for thrombotic research.
Dr Matt Wheeler and his wife and family were in Canada for less than a year, unfortunately curtailed by the onset of the covid virus throughout the world. They returned home to New Zealand in early 2020 for safety and family reasons, but with the hope that they can go back to enable Matt to continue his studies.
Dr John Carter, recently retired head of Haematology at Wellington Hospital and head of the Wellington Cancer Centre, and Dr Matt Wheeler’s boss, introduced Matt to our meeting as an outstanding haematologist. John said that Matt had been chosen to go to McMaster, one of the world’s leading research units in the study of thrombosis. John said Matt is an outstanding young doctor he is doing particularly well in his chosen research path. Matt has brought back to Tauranga where he currently working in the public hospital a vast knowledge of information gained in an area of medical concern for so many groups in our community, in particular amongst Maori and Pacific Island families.
It was interesting for members to learn about this specialist area of medical research, and about life for Matt and his family in Hamilton, Ontario. With his very down to earth approach, Matt warmed to our audience and he conveyed his very sincere thanks to Rotary for providing an opportunity to extend his knowledge and skills in a very specialist area of medicine for on-going practice in New Zealand.