prasad1
Active member

[FONT="]When I was five, we moved to Karkala, a green city known for its many temples and mosques and churches and lakes. I attended Jayanthi Nagara Government Elementary school until Grade 5, and then Christ the King elementary school for Grades 6 and 7. When I was in Grade 6, my father died of a haemorrhage. I witnessed him throwing up blood and he died within two days of falling ill. Overnight, my mom became a widow and had to raise all of us alone. Her hardships were even worse than mine![/FONT]
[FONT="]I attended an all-girls high school and then went on to Sri Bhuvanendra College in Karkala where I completed my undergraduate degree in botany, zoology and chemistry, graduating with high distinction.[/FONT]
[FONT="]I then joined Manipal Academy of Higher Education, about 35 km from Karkala. It is one of the top private health institutes in India. In 1996, I completed my graduate degree in medical microbiology.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In 1997, I got married and moved to Dubai where my husband worked and lived. At the time, I had an opportunity to do PhD in tuberculosis research but I wasn’t able to return to India as I was newly married.
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Migrated to Canada.
I went on to become co-ordinator of a massive and groundbreaking clinical study involving more than 75 hospitals that required collecting data on cardiac arrest and trauma patients at risk of bleeding to death. The work I did was enough to convince Dr. Sandro Rizoli to take me on as a PhD candidate in 2012 at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Rizoli is chief of trauma care at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Studying for my PhD was a dream come true. My milestone was so close.[/FONT]
[FONT="]However, in 2015 I was diagnosed with bile duct cancer, a cancer which soon spread to my ovaries, liver and lungs. I was given just six months to live.
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[FONT="]With 80% of my PhD complete, I saw no option but to continue my studies. I refused to let life’s traumas throw me off course. In between exhausting bouts of chemotherapy, I carried on in the lab and library, never giving up. I went through 20 gruelling months of fatigue, while continuing to publish papers and give presentations, even when it was painful to walk.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Now I fear I may not survive another four weeks to see my June convocation.[/FONT]
[FONT="]I am so humbled and grateful that University of Toronto agreed to hold a special convocation on May 9 to recognise my achievement and award me my PhD.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/educa...ion-for-her/story-2PUXj2pTq20qTejECVZWYK.html
Congratulations Dr. Precilla (Veigas) Dsouza[/FONT]