A Commonwealth Games gold
medallist turned leading University of Otago academic says he
is "honoured and humbled" to be appointed the first patron of
a health trust continuing the legacy of a pioneering
Queenstown rural GP.
Associate Prof David Gerrard was announced patron of the Pat
Farry Rural Health Education Trust during the New Zealand
Rural General Practice Network conference, in Wellington,
last night.
Prof Gerrard said yesterday, as a medical educator, he saw
the establishment of the trust as an evolution from the
tireless efforts Pat Farry had put in to stimulate faculty
and general practice interest in rural medicine, which led to
the Rural Medical Immersion Programme, from 2007.
"Pat had been a colleague, a mentor and a friend to me. As an
undergraduate medical student, my rural general practice
experience was in Queenstown under Pat's tutelage and my
eldest son, who went through the Otago Medical School, also
had the same experience, so we can claim two generations of
having that personal exposure to Pat's wisdom and
understanding in things rural and medicine."
Prof Gerrard is director of development and alumni relations
in the office of the vice-chancellor, having been associate
dean to the faculty of medicine and the Dunedin School of
Medicine since 2000.
His publications and areas of medical research include
paediatric sports medicine, undergraduate medical education,
sports injury prevention, bioethics and anti-doping
strategies in sport.
Prof Gerrard OBE CNZM is the immediate past chairman of
Drug-Free Sport New Zealand, present chairman of the New
Zealand Drowning Prevention Council and holds positions with
international sports medicine committees, including the World
Anti-Doping Agency and the International Swimming Federation.
He was a Olympian in 1964, a gold medallist in swimming at
the 1966 Commonwealth Games, an Olympic team physician, as
well as Chef de Mission and medical commissioner for a period
of eight Summer Olympics.
Dr Farry practiced as a rural GP in the Wakatipu from 1971
until he died in 2009 aged 65.
The trust was set up in his name one year ago to continue his
pioneering work to support the sustainability and quality of
health services for the rural communitiesThe trust is chaired
by Dr Farry's brother, John (a Dunedin lawyer), with Sue
Farry (Dr Farry's Queenstown-based widow), Dr Stuart Gowland,
Dr John Hillock, Dr Branko Sijnja, Kirsty Mirrell-McMillan
and Michele Wilkie as trustees.
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