10 • Profile


THE ROAD TO A


S A KEEN cyclist, it was no surprise to Dr Jon Rees’ family that he wanted to circumnavigate the East African island of Zanzibar on two wheels.


With the support of his wife,


children and patients, the North Somerset GP battled through sweltering 38ºC heat to successfully complete the gruelling six-day expedition. But there is more to his African adventure than a personal cycling challenge – he was there to raise funds for the charity Health Improvement Project Zanzibar (HIPZ), of which he is a trustee. That first ride in 2010 raised more than £80,000 which was used to build and equip a primary healthcare unit and a maternity service at the island’s Makunduchi Hospital. Since then he has completed the feat twice more, with a 30-strong team of charity cyclists behind him, and pedalled from London to Paris, personally raising £20,000. The father-of-three says the 2010 trip was


“an amazing experience”. “It was extremely hot, the roads were of variable quality, the bikes were of terrible quality, and it was challenging, but the amazing group spirit kept everyone going.”


Jon had a brush with fame during his second bike ride around Zanzibar in 2013. Pop singer


GP Jon Rees talks about his passion for improving healthcare in Africa… and his close encounter with a pop star


and reality TV star Peter Andre took part alongside an ITV2 crew as part of the fly-on-the-wall series, Peter Andre: My Life. The Mysterious Girl singer began supporting HIPZ after being operated on by urology consultant and HIPZ founder Dr Ru MacDonagh (Peter has since married the surgeon’s daughter Emily).


Inspiration Jon’s involvement began when he worked alongside Dr MacDonagh as a urology research registrar in Taunton. Having already worked in a hospital in Zanzibar as well as Lesotho, South Africa and Tanzania, Jon was immediately keen to get involved with HIPZ and went back out to work in Zanzibar’s Mnazi Moja Hospital. He says: “I absolutely loved working out


there and met so many inspirational people. It’s an incredibly welcoming place, but the conditions in the main hospital were tough for


the patients, and for the staff.” At one outpatient clinic, Jon describes seeing people everywhere. Many had travelled across the country and some slept in the grounds of the hospital to be there early for the first-come-first-served clinic. Just a curtain separated three clinicians consulting in the same room, making privacy almost impossible. Jon says: “I saw advanced cancers and


distressing cases, but the ability to cope with them and treat these people with compassion in those situations was so limited. I saw real human suffering.”


So when Dr MacDonagh asked him to


become a HIPZ trustee, the GP immediately agreed.


A different approach The biggest draw for Jon was the different approach HIPZ took to their charity work. “There was no doubt that there was a huge need, “ he says, “but what really attracted me to working with Ru and HIPZ was that the charity was trying a different model of development aid than many other NGOs, working closely alongside the Zanzibar government. Ru has such good knowledge and a great network of contacts there, so we could work out what was really needed, rather than doing simply what we thought might help.” What started as a small kitchen-table


PHOTOGRAPHS: DR JON REES/HIPZ


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16