Changing the World One Day at a Time
Dr. Jane Philpott (MD’84) calls it her big dream. “That every Canadian would know on World AIDS Day, they’re working on behalf of people with HIV. Once we have every Canadian on board, we’ll try to get the rest of the world to join us.”
It’s a simple dream to the family physician and mother of four, and one that belies her passionate fi ght to win over the minds, hearts and wallets of colleagues to those suffering each day with HIV and AIDS – particularly in Africa.
In 2004, Philpott started Give a Day to World AIDS, which has raised more than $2 million for the Stephen Lewis Foundation and Dignitas International. It began as a challenge to her physician colleagues at Markham-Stouffville Hospital to add up their billings on that day and donate an equal amount. Within two weeks, she had raised $33,000.
Philpott knew her idea could take flight to other hospitals and other professions – and it has. The medical, legal and business communities in Toronto, as well as schools and other groups across Canada have supported the annual campaign, helping to raise more than $500,000 in 2008.
“It’s amazing that she has taken this creative idea and transformed it into a miraculous intervention in the lives of people who are struggling for survival,” said Stephen Lewis in a recent video tribute to Dr. Philpott, upon her receiving the 2009 Casey Award from Casey House, a Toronto HIV and AIDS hospice.
The award recognizes a leader in HIV/ AIDS and social advocacy – a role Philpott welcomes. “It’s nice to have a platform to say ‘Yes, there has been great progress made in terms of more and more people on antiretrovirals, but still at least 6,000 people die every day from AIDS and it’s ridiculous there is so much injustice.’”
It is that sense of injustice, particularly for children, that drives Philpott. It is also a tribute to her first-born daughter, Emily, who died of meningitis in Niger, Africa in 1991 at age two.
Philpott and her husband, Pep, spent more than 10 years working at a hospital in the small West African country. For others, a tragedy like this might have led them to close the door on Africa for good. For Philpott, it galvanized her will to end the injustices she saw every day for African mothers and their children.
“It was a horror – a parent’s worst nightmare,” says Philpott. “But, if anything, it solidifi ed my commitment to do something about global health because so many of the issues have an impact on young children dying of preventable diseases.”
Emily’s meningitis was a form that is not always preventable but is much more common in Niger than in North America. Her second daughter, Bethany, was also infected, but was saved; in part due to an emergency evacuation.
“The first day, my husband and I remember our fi rst instinct was ‘get me out of this place and I never want to come back,’” says Philpott. They had to come back to Toronto for Bethany’s treatment and recovery. “But we very quickly – literally the next day – said ‘We have to go back. We have to bring good out of this by helping to prevent other children from dying.’”
Eventually the family returned to Canada but 18 years later, Philpott’s vision remains. She exudes motherly compassion as she talks about the more than 1,000 babies being infected in utero every day with HIV – something that is completely preventable through early detection and access to the right medication.
Despite Give a Day’s success, Philpott remains frustrated HIV and AIDS have fallen out of media attention. “The economic realities have become our global dialogue now and not addressing health and development issues. Meanwhile these chronic, desperate issues like AIDS, poverty, tuberculosis … it’s really hard to maintain public interest to make a difference.”
Her activism is inspiring for medical students with their own passion for global health. In May, she returned to Western for the second time to discuss global health with Schulich students. As a fourth-year student at Western, Philpott did an international elective in Kenya – a decision she says had the biggest influence on her career.
In 2010, Philpott will launch a Family Medicine residency program for the University of Toronto at MarkhamStouffville Hospital with a focus on global health. Trainees will complete requirements for Family Medicine residency while also obtaining a Certifi cate in Global Health through the University of Toronto’s Global Health Education Institute.
How does she balance a family practice with more than 1,000 patients with being an academic, a global health activist, and a mother of three teens and an eight-year-old? “It means from the time I wake up in the morning until I go to bed at night I’m doing one of those jobs,” says Philpott, laughing that she only actually gets paid for one of them. “I love what I do. I am really driven by my commitment to global health issues.”
Hundreds of volunteers have stepped forward to help with Give a Day, which has lent the campaign a life of its own, but Philpott remains determined to capture more individuals. “It has caught on wonderfully but in some ways I get frustrated it hasn’t caught on more. I really believe even though we’re in an economic crisis, the money is there to address the health needs – to give everyone a basic level of health that everyone in the world has a right to enjoy.”
Do organizations like those Give a Day supports make a difference? You bet. In 2004 when Give a Day started there were 400,000 people in the world on antiretroviral medication. Now there are almost 4 million – nearly a ten-fold increase. But with 33 million people currently living with HIV, Philpott says there is a long way to go.
At the same time she is optimistic. “I think there is a paradigm shift in terms of people’s understanding of their role in the world and their responsibility to address the inequities they see. When I think of the realities of what HIV does, I think, ‘One day per year? Could we not even give a portion of one day per year on behalf of people who live with HIV every day?’… I think we can.”
