Geelong doctors to raise funds for Uganda outreach mission

A group of Geelong doctors are lacing up their runners this weekend for a mini marathon to raise funds before they embark on an outreach journey to Uganda which was initially scheduled for later this month.

Due to a developing Ebola outbreak, the trip was officially delayed on Thursday afternoon, however the group remain firmly committed to making sure the outreach program still runs.

Geelong Hospital practitioner Conor McDonald and five student doctors (Fred Gorman, Xanthe Cerutti, Alex Pritchard, Kirsten Murray and Jono Gray) will soon travel to St Bernard’s Mannya Health Centre to provide a mixture of outreach programs, health assessments and acute medical work to over 2,250 patients.

The students and McDonald are set to run a mini-marathon and host a barbecue at the Geelong waterfront this Saturday, November 12 to help raise funds for the centre so that it can run at a reduced capacity during the current outbreak.

“We’ve passively been raising money for about a month with friends and family, but we are running the mini-marathon event this weekend,” McDonald said.

“A few of us will be setting up a sausage sizzle from lunchtime at the waterfront and we’ve invited people to come down and have a sausage and watch us run a marathon or half marathon.

“Some of our team members will do various distances and we hope to build some support and raise a bit of money.”

Mr McDonald said that the trip later this month will be his fourth to Uganda, and said the healthcare system has drastically improved thanks to the work of the Cotton On Foundation and local doctors who have assisted to grow the Ugandan health centre.

St Bernard’s now has a full-time doctor, five medical officers, a surgical theatre, a dentist chair and 17,000 to 18,000 attendees a year.

“The Cotton On Foundation have been involved since 2017 and a lot of Mannya’s funding comes from them,” McDonald said.

“I guess we will be that extra manpower, more people always need care.

“My link to Mannya comes from my grandfather who was a Geelong GP and was good friends with Nigel Austin, who is the owner of Cotton On.

“They connected through their church group with the community in Mannya and took it on to try go over and raise some money and help the people.

“My Pa was one of the first doctors to go to the facility and helped grow it and then got me in touch with them.”

The team’s outreach trip will be 15 days in length and they hope to run 10 different services to reach the most isolated and vulnerable Ugandan people.

In conjunction with the money that McDonald and the Geelong students raise, the Cotton On Foundation are dollar matching their proceeds.

“Our aim is to do this trip annually and look to reach more people each year,” McDonald said.

“We really just want to create that link that can get the word out and get people involved.”‘

The group were expected to head to Uganda at the end of this month, however, have had to delay their travel due to a developing Ebola outbreak in the region.

The community can still get down to support the team at Geelong Waterfront from lunchtime onwards on Saturday.

To donate online go to: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mission-mannya