The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

come together and pray for their kids.” Each meeting is based around a different focus, such as “school bullying” or “purity” and the women will gather together while Kerri leads them in prayer. “It provides an extra cushion for doing all you can for your kids’ safety,” she says. She also devotes her spare time to nurturing her love Another relationship built on trust that Kerri greatly depends on is the team of ‘Docs’ she works with everyday. “It’s amazing to find a group of strong- minded people with different personalities that gel so beautifully,” she says. “I know it’s hard to find and I think a part of it is the huge support we get from the for F y is like my escape,” ” she fa “I can escape from whatever’ ‘s in my head, especially because my patients are always on my mind. Kerri says, in times of struggle, she is lucky to be able to lean on her husband for support. “He understands the ups and downs in medicine,” she explains, referring to his job as a paramedic. “He understands when I come home and can’t shut my brain off.” His encouragement, along with her adoration for photography, allows Kerri to stay afloat when the emo- tional burdens of being a doctor become overwhelming. As part of her motto to “embrace life,” Kerri uses her camera to explore and chronicle the things that make her feel content. Her subject of choice? “I like to find beauty in the simple things,” she notes, while expressing her delight for photographing nature and her fami “Scrapbooking became a way for me to integrate the two and it allows me to document my life,” she explains. “You realize how precious life is and you have to docu- ment those special moments.” Kerri describes herself as a very sentimental person and she believes this quality is the reason for her devotion to practicing family medicine. Commenting on her relationships with her patients, she says “You become a part of the journey with them. They’re giving me a gift as I’m helping them along. It’s a privilege to be privy to what they tell you and you can’t get that anywhere else.” She adds, “It’s a big responsibility, but so worth it.” After losing her sister at a young age, Kerri says she has a “depth of sympathy that makes her more emotion- ally involved with her patients.” “When they cry, I cry. When they’re in pain, I’m in pain. When they’re happy, I’m ecstatic!” she says. This strong connection to her patients, as well as the desire and willingness to help them “throughout the journey” has led Kerri to make herself as available to her patients as possible. She designed and manages her own website and encourages her patients to keep in touch with her through email. She also posts regular health updates to her website to keep her patients aware of any new medical research that may be relevant to them. “It’s an extra level of me trying to be there - even if it’s not physically,” she explains. “It’s helpful to my patients and myself, especially with time and getting information out quickly to a large group of people.” Kerri says sometimes she will even use the website as a means to catch up with or keep in touch with her patients. “If a patient is going through a hard time, they just need a reassuring word,” she says. “All it takes is one sentence to tide over or reassure someone and it’s because I have that trust with my patients.” She smiles before adding, “It’s unlike anywhere else.” By Christina Coughlin Focus on Scugog Next month - Part 10 Dr.Tony Brown se ¢ Scugog Chamber of Commerce Did you know that the Chamber is the largest networking group in Scugog? 905-985-4971 www.scugogchamber.ca Elect © HOWARD DANSON Long time Ward 5 resident Proven leader in health care and community shdanson@powergate.ca or 905-985-1659 FOCUS - OCTOBER 2010 31