The Quesnel Community Foundation (QCF) has created a new bursary for students interested in health care.
The bursary was established by friends and colleagues of Dr. Neil and Eva Barber to honour their memory and contributions to the Quesnel community.
Dr. Neil Barber was born in Manchester, England, in 1934. He attended Cambridge University, where he qualified as a doctor in 1959.
Eva Barber was born in Germany in 1927. Losing her parents at a young age, she made her way to England, where she qualified, with honours, as a nurse and met Neil.
The Barbers spent three years living and working in Northern Kenya, followed by two years in Swansea, before immigrating to Canada in 1965 and settling in the Cariboo region.
Dr. Barber specialized in internal medicine and was a founding member of the Quesnel and District Palliative Care Association in 1985. Dr. Barber, along with support from the Home and Community Care Nurses and the Acute Care Nurses, was instrumental in bringing palliative care services and a three-bed hospice unit to Quesnel.
The Barbers are fondly remembered by family, friends, former patients and members of the health care community, who came together to raise the funds needed to create the permanent bursary in the Barbers’ name.
The minimum amount required by the QCF to establish a permanent bursary is $30,000, and, amazingly, the group managed to gather the funds in less then nine months. Clearly, the incredible accomplishment was a testament to the positive impact the Barbers had upon the community.
The QCF awarded eight scholarships and bursaries to nine students in 2019, with a total of $12,000 being issued.
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