REPORTS from Council
Town nominates dedicated Family
Physician for Council Award
Dr. Duncan Bull, who
has been a family physician in Erin, Ont., for
33 years, was presented with the Council
Award at the September meeting.
It was the town
council that nominated Dr. Bull for the
Dr. Duncan Bull
Council Award to recognize his three decades of devoted service. He has
deep roots in the community, volunteering with
the Optimists Club to raise funds for youth projects
and spearheading local blood donor clinics.
Dr. Bull, 62, obtained his medical degree from
Queen’s University in 1977. After graduation, he
headed to New Zealand and then Australia to do
internships in family medicine.
After returning to Ontario in 1980 with his wife Cecile, who is a nurse and whom he met in New Zealand,
Dr. Bull spent a year in the University of Toronto family
practice program.
In 1981, newly certified by the College of Family
Physicians of Canada, he set up his practice in the village of Erin, population of 2,500, about 30 kilometres
east of Guelph, Ont.
Dr. Bull has been there ever since, earning the residents’ respect and admiration.
Before defibrillators were readily available, the fire
department would routinely ask Dr. Bull to accompany
them to calls requesting help for a possible heart attack.
“They called him quite regularly out of his bed at
night and he would go,” said Kathryn Ironmonger,
Erin’s town manager. “He also organized our blood
donor clinics. Because of his presence, the quantities of blood we collected were quite high for our
little community.”
Dr. Duncan Bull, rural family physician, town hero
Q: What was your childhood like?
A: I was born in Brampton. My father was a dairy farmer
and my mom was a stay-at-home mom. I was the oldest.
I have a younger brother and sister. My father passed
away when I was 14 of kidney cancer. My mom and dad
had divorced and we were living in Toronto by then.
We were very fortunate because it was a happy family
even when my parents split. Everything they did was to
make sure our lives were as normal as possible. My dad
got sick and passed away quite quickly but we had lots
of support from cousins