Scholarships boost doctors

Northland doctors Mataroria Lyndon (left) and Marinus Stowers have both been awarded scholarships by the Rose Hellaby Maori Education Fund. Photo / Supplied

Two doctors hailing from Northland have been awarded prestigious scholarships to help with their postgraduate studies.

Mataroria Lyndon, who featured in the Advocate last week after being accepted to Harvard University to complete a Masters of Public Health, was awarded a $30,000 postgraduate scholarship from the Rose Hellaby Maori Education Fund on Wednesday night while fellow doctor Marinus Stowers, from Hokianga, who is undertaking a Phd in medicine majoring in surgery at the University of Auckland, was awarded a $15,000 grant.

The pair said they were very grateful to be honoured with the scholarships.

"The money is a nice bonus. For me it's a really great recognition of our hard work," said Dr Stowers.

"The award will provide the support to get me to Harvard where I can learn nga rautaki (the strategies) to fill my kete and come home to Aotearoa to whakaora/to hapai (strengthen and uplift) the health of our whanau and te iwi Maori," added Dr Lyndon.

Dr Stowers and Dr Lyndon both work as clinical fellows for Ko Awatea at Middlemore Hospital.

In August 2016 Dr Lyndon will head to Boston's Harvard University, and with course fees of US$60,000 ($90,000) for the one-year Master of Public Health, he said the money would be a big help.

"When I tell people I'm going to Harvard they say 'Your dream has come true.' But it never really was my dream, it's not meant to be my dream and it's not really the right dream. What I can take away from there, how I can fill my kete with knowledge to help people - that's why I want to go to Harvard," he said.

"When I finished by medical degree people said 'You can come home now' but Matua Mataroria Brown, a kaumatua, said don't come back here for 10 years, go and learn. I want to go away and learn more, and come back and improve Maori health."