A retired schoolteacher from Michigan, Sandra MacLeod has chosen to honour her late husband, Dr. Charles MacLeod, by helping future generations of medical students at the uOttawa Faculty of Medicine.
With that motivation in mind, Sandra has made a large donation to the uOttawa Faculty of Medicine to endow the new Charles W. MacLeod Scholarship for Undergraduate Medical Students. Meant to provide the same opportunities to medical students and future doctors that her husband was given, the scholarship will provide $3,500 to one or more medical students in financial need every year.
This scholarship exists alongside the Dr. Charles W. MacLeod Fellowship, founded by Dr. MacLeod before his passing in 2007, which grants an incredible $10,000 to MD and PhD students researching brain and mind related illnesses.
Bryce Bogie, a PhD candidate in neuroscience at the uOttawa Faculty of Medicine, can attest to the importance the MacLeods’ support. A recipient of the Charles W. MacLeod Fellowship in 2022, Bogie’s research focuses on memory and cognitive challenges experienced by people living with schizophrenia and major depressive disorders. He was developing an innovative virtual reality therapy designed to strengthen real-world memory skills. Bogie says the fellowship allowed him to focus on this important work.
“(The MacLeod Family’s) generous gift lifted a huge weight off my shoulders,” says Bogie. ‘And as an endowed fellowship, this award will continue being given out for many generations to come.”
From Cape Breton to the operating room
Born and raised in rural Cape Breton to a large farming family, Charles’ path to medicine required much determination. He graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in 1946 and came to uOttawa to study medicine as part of the Faculty of Medicine’s first graduating class.
After completing his studies and his internship at the Civic Hospital in Ottawa, his career took him to Michigan, where he worked for many years at both the Grace and Ford Hospitals in Detroit.
In the 1970s, he made the switch from general surgery to hand surgery, recruited by one of the nation’s most prominent doctors in the field, Dr. Joseph Posch.
Perhaps the crowning achievement of his career, in 1979, Charles reattached the hand of a machine operator at a local factory.
The worker lost his balance while on the job and fell into the machinery, which tore off his hand. His coworkers carefully handled his lost appendage and brought it to the hospital, where Charles performed a nearly 8-hour surgery to reunite it with its owner.
Despite his success, Charles rarely spoke about his achievements, focusing instead on how important his education had been, the doors it opened, and the ways in which he hoped to show his gratitude.
Why she gives
With no children of her own, Sandra has chosen to direct her philanthropy toward students who may find themselves in situations like Charles’s. “Coming from where he did, he needed a lot of help,” she says. “I’m sure there are others like him today who need that same chance.”
Before deciding to give elsewhere, she remembered that her late husband had already left a gift to uOttawa through his estate. “I thought he would want that support to continue. The university was such a wonderful experience for him.”
“Any time there’s a young person who wants to go into medicine, they should have the opportunity. We need more physicians.”
When she envisions the students who will receive the scholarship in the future, she imagines Charles’ reaction. “I can picture his smile. His pleasure knowing he helped someone. And I would feel good knowing I had a small hand in making that happen.”
Her gift ensures that Charles’ legacy, and the opportunities that shaped their life together, will continue to touch others for generations to come.
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