Stewart Hunter, of Vermilion, wanted to be a surgeon from the time he was eight years old.  He qualified at age 22 and, after working for more than 60 years, found the stress of Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Ob/Gyn) work becoming too much. Recently, thanks to RPAP's Enrichment Training Program, Hunter has changed his career focus to palliative care.  The story of his career thus far is fascinating.

Born a Scot, Hunter attended medical school in Liverpool because his parents could not afford the Scottish medical schools. By the end of World War II, doctors were in such short supply that final year medical students were already doing some surgery on their own. When he joined the Royal Air Force, he was graded as a surgical specialist and sent out to Singapore, where he says, they had more surgical specialists than they knew what to do with.  As a new obstetrical centre was opening in the hospital, Hunter was made an obstetrician/gynecologist (Ob/Gyn) to Far Eastern Air Forces from 1947 - 1949.  He says he never saw the enemy!

Following his time in the service, Hunter returned to Britain, where the only jobs immediately available were in Ob/Gyn.  Then in the late 1950's, Hunter went out to East Africa and spent five wonderful years working in obstetrics in Kenya. Again he returned to Britain, this time as a Ob/Gyn Consultant with a Welsh Hospital Board before spending a year in Australia and then moving to Canada in 1969 to become a GP Surgeon/Ob/Gyn, first in Barrhead, then Fairview and finally in Vermilion where he's lived since 1979. He will not move.

"Everybody knows everybody here and it is not the name of the qualifications you've got but whether you do something well that�s important here," says Hunter. "It's a town where I can leave my house door open, car outside unlocked, and nobody raids my house.  The town is big enough to have two sets of traffic lights and a four-way stop sign and close enough that I can go to Edmonton for the symphony.  "I have four kids whom I love dearly, and two grandchildren whom I spoil rotten because that is what Grandpa is for!"

"We need six docs in Vermilion and currently have four," Hunter continues.  The other three are doing all the work because I've eased off.  A few years ago, I went to a Pallium Conference, became fascinated with palliative care, and decided that this was what I wanted to do. I advised the RHA that I wanted to form a Palliative Care Response Team."

Hunter was recruited and sent off for Enrichment Training in palliative care that was sponsored by the RPAP. Following a month residency in Edmonton at the Grey Nuns Hospital and the Cancer Clinic, he went to Victoria for a week's intensive course. This year, he went to Britain for a week to visit hospices and palliative care specialists.  

Hunter describes his new role. "There are four palliative care specialists in the region with much the same training, five nurse consultants with specialist training, pharmacists and dieticians. We work as a team." As Hunter is now semi-retired, he has more time to make house calls and travel than the other three active general practitioners.

"I find palliative care very rewarding but it is not fun," says Hunter.  "It is heart-rending.  To take someone and their family who are in dire distress and convert their situation to one that is peaceful and meaningful is everything." Besides, he quips, he has to make sure the nurses know what to do with him because he's getting old!

Beyond his medical career, Hunter has had many interests. Both his parents were very musical. His father was a concert pianist and a beautiful grand piano graced their home. His mother was a contralto in the Royal Philharmonic Choir.  Hunter says, however, that he can't play or sing a note.

He became a sailing instructor in Inverness, Scotland and then in the 1950's, got interested in driving fast vehicles and became a driver for Renault, racing in Britain and East Africa and rallying Mini Coopers in Britain.  When he arrived in Canada and found all this white stuff on the ground, Hunter learned to ski and became a Canadian Ski Instructor.

And when he thought he was going to retire and before he took up Palliative Care, Hunter went down to the States, took an art course and became a painter in oil, watercolour and acrylic. He has sold a number. Don't think Hunter is slowing down. He recently traded his Honda 125 street bike for a 250 - because it's faster!