Dr Gillian Mulholland – Some information to Digest!

President Katrina welcomed everyone to the meeting including the speaker for the evening, Dr Gillian Mulholland.

President Katrina introduced Dr Gillian Mulholland, Consultant Gastroenterologist.

Gillian told the meeting that she had been a doctor for 24 years and loved her job.  She had attended Glasgow University.  After qualifying she spent time as a Medical Junior Doctor and then as a Surgical Junior Doctor.  She was introduced to Gastroenterology and “became hooked”. 

She works at Hairmyres Hospital and deals with people with stomach problems, irritable bowel syndrome, Crone’s disease and colitis. She derives most job satisfaction from dealing with liver disease.  Gillian said it was a privilege to treat people in need.  People share things with Doctors and confidentiality was very important.

Some of the practical skills she has developed, involve endoscopies and colonoscopies.  She also sees people that have suffered heart attacks, strokes etc and enjoys the variety and unpredictable nature of her job. She is on-call several times a month to back-up and support other doctors.  She also teaches and mentors medical students, nurses and junior colleagues and gets great pleasure from seeing people, that she has helped, progress in their medical career.

Throughout her presentation, Gillian recounted various stories and events she had encountered during her time as a doctor.

Unfortunately, towards the end of her talk, her Zoom link began to break up and so there was not an opportunity to ask questions.

Our vote of thanks was proposed by Peter McCrossan who thanked Gillian for a very enthusiastic and interesting talk and for giving so freely of her time to talk to the members.

In her interesting Rotary information for the week, President Katrina highlighted the first half of a letter from R.I. President Holger Knaack:

My dear friends and fellow Rotary leaders,

As we enter Foundation Month, we would like to personally thank each and every one of you who did so much to make World Polio Day such an enormous success.

We broadcast our Global Update on 24 October in multiple time zones around the world, reaching more people, and raising more awareness than ever before. Rotary members in 146 countries registered more than 6,500 World Polio Day events and activities, from Brazil to Japan, Nigeria to India.  More than $900,000 was contributed online to the PolioPlus Fund which moves us closer to this year’s $50 million fundraising goal to take full advantage of the Bill & Melinda Gates match.

Inspired by this show of support across the globe, our work to eradicate polio continues. On 25 August, Nigeria marked four years without a case of wild poliovirus, and the World Health Organization African region is now officially certified wild poliovirus-free. Rotary has contributed nearly US$890 million—and countless volunteer hours—to eliminate polio in the African region. In the face of an ongoing global pandemic, this is one of the few good news stories for public health, and we should recognize this great achievement. It took tremendous effort and partnership over many years. Special mention should be made for the dedicated health workers—mainly women—who travelled by every form of transportation imaginable to reach children with the polio vaccine. We are particularly grateful for the Rotary members throughout Africa and around the world who have dedicated themselves to making polio a disease of the past. In fact, Rotary member Dr. Tunji Funsho was named as one of TIME's Most Influential People in the world for his role in leading Rotary towards this historic achievement. 
The type of partnership we have formed to make such progress against polio provides a blueprint for future Rotary projects.

Willie Talbot reported that the Bonus Ball was a roll-over.