May 2017
Dr John Marley, a senior doctor who works with Skilled Medical, his wife, Anne (a dietitian), Stephanie (a remote ED nurse) and three other crew members will embark on an extraordinary voyage soon to The Louisiades Archipelago, a group of underdeveloped islands around 200 kms east of mainland Papua New Guinea and 1000 km north-east of Cairns to perform volunteer medical aid work.
“Though the islands are part of PNG, there seems to be little contact with the mainland. Most inter-island transport is only by canoe, the islands are undeveloped and the islanders live a subsistence lifestyle,” said Dr Marley. “We understand that there are no doctors in the islands and the clinic on Nimowa Island, which sees 4,000 cases of malaria a year, is out of medicines. As there are no regular transport boats, we are aiming to sail the supplies there in our sailing boat.”
Besides assisting with the medical clinic, Dr Marley and his crew were first asked if they could bring soccer boots to the islands! Dr Marley mentioned his donation need to Melissa Houston, his Skilled Medical Senior Recruitment Consultant and she was instrumental in driving Skilled Medical soccer boot donations for this project.
Skilled Medical purchased new Adidas and New Balance soccer boots in various sizes and collected additional, used soccer boots from Skilled Medical staff to send to Dr Marley to take on his voyage.
“It seems that islanders are enthusiastic players and so clearly we wanted to facilitate this. Apparently few are over 160 cm tall, probably reflecting their nutritional status, with a maximum foot size of 9,” said Dr Marley. “We are very grateful indeed to Mel and Skilled Medical for taking on the boot part of the aid project so willingly and enthusiastically.”
Last year, Dr Marley and Anne also traveled to Vanuatu to perform similar volunteer medical aid work teaching nurses, developing infant and childhood nutrition, assisting in rebuilding communities and bringing over much needed new medical equipment.
Skilled Medical's New Soccer Boot Donations for Dr Marley