By Cheryl Jahn

Dr. Nadine Caron receives prestigious honour

Oct 4, 2024 | 2:28 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – She is the first Canadian female general surgeon of First Nations descent, as well as the first female First Nations student to graduate from the University of British Columbia’s medical school. She has a Master’s from Harvard. And now, she is one of six people to be inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. And she’s the first to admit, she couldn’t have done it without a legion of people around her.

“Pretty much every accomplishment that I’ve ever had,” she says. “I can really name some key people that, if they didn’t exist in my life, I would have had not even the foresight to even start that journey, let alone get to the point where I’m at now. And so that’s what I mean. You don’t get recognition like this without basically turning around and seeing this huge group of people behind you. It really is amazing.”

Dr. Caron is noted, initially, on the local scene for work creating a Northern Biobank. And she has a message to young First Nations girls and boys who want to become a physician a surgeon, a researcher and anything else they want.

Soccer

Timberwolves womens' team drop 4-0 to Victoria Vikes

30m ago

bc politics

Only 4 out of 11 candidates show up for forums at UNBC

1h ago

Healthcare Crisis

Prince George fed up with health care wait times

2h ago

“When people say that it cannot be done, deconstruct those words and find power in them. But generally speaking, people who tell you that it’s a silly idea that it will never work, that it can’t be done, our people that don’t have the passion to know how important it is and passion cannot be measured.”

And for her not only is the recognition humbling, it’s emotional.

“It’s really hard after kind after September 30. It’s really emotional,” she says with emotion in her voice.

“There are so many kids that don’t know that they’re going to be doctors one day. You know, there are so many people applying to medical school that don’t know that they’re going to be surgeons and how much they’re gonna love it. There’s so many surgeons out there that are going to not realize they’re going to change the world.”

But this is but a moment in time for Dr. Caron, albeit a pretty major one, and she says her work is far from done.