Instead of hitting the beach or arcades, Toronto teen Ron Balkissoon and his friends, pictured in this Toronto Star photo from 1977, spent the summer starting up Camp Spectrum, a canoe-tripping organization for inner-city youth. Balkissoon recalls those years with great affection. “It was a wonderful group of people helping kids who had some difficulties or challenges,” he says. “It was really formative for me in seeing people’s potential the circumstances of their life.
“My heart really was in medicine like my father,” he says, “but so much back then was just about memorizing.” Balkissoon found the right educational fit at McMaster University, where he was classmates with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dr. James Orbinski of Medicines Sans Frontiers . “I owe so much to McMaster,” Balkissoon says, “a wonderful school that taught me to think outside of the box.
He intended to work overseas in tropical medicine and global health, but as he says, “life happens, and you have a couple of kids, and all of a sudden it doesn’t seem very safe to be taking them all around the globe.” Balkissoon looks forward to exploring that work again and eventually returning to Canada once he retires. However, he acknowledges that might not be for a while. “My father just turned 83 and he’s still practising medicine.
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