Doc in training inspired in junior high P.E.

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It's exam time at the University of British Columbia, but second-year medical student Nicholas Half takes 45 minutes out of his busy schedule to go for a run around the Endowment Land.

"I'd like to run three or four times a week, but right now I'm down to about once a week because of the exams," said the 25-year-old of the Cree community of Saddle Lake First Nation in Alberta. If not for his love for sports, Half said he would never have ended up where he is now.

"I was a really active kid," said Half. "So I always wanted to do something with my life that would keep me active, like a police officer or a fireman." But a Grade 7 physical education course changed his mind. "One of the blocks in P.E. was a health and fitness unit," Half explained. "We were taught some anatomy and had to do research and write papers. I wrote a paper on the human skeletal system and that got me really interested in how the body works."

Half went on to complete a bachelor in kinesiology degree at Simon Fraser University with the intention of going to medical school afterwards. The first doctor-to-be from his reserve, Half said it hasn't all been smooth sailing.

"I went through four stages." From fantasizing about being a doctor to finding out what it takes, to combating difficulties with basic sciences in college, he has now found the strength and determination to make his dream come true.

"For a while, I actually didn't think it was going to happen," he said. "I wasn't doing so well at school and then I joined a pre-med society and it opened my eyes."

Born in Nelson, B.C., Half spent a couple of years in his early teens living on the reserve with his parents. He's seen the need for better health care for First Nations communities, but said his choice to be a doctor is "solely a selfish one."

"It's what I want to do," he smiled. "But it's very exciting to be the first, because people can see me and realize that it can be done." Half said he hasn't ruled out family practice, but he really wants to be an orthopedic surgeon.

His goal is to perform complex surgery involving the reconstruction of bones, which will likely see him work in a large hospital in a major urban centre.

"I'd like to think of the fact that half of the Aboriginals in this country are living off the reserves. So I'll be meeting them wherever I go."

The avid hockey player says his interest in orthopedics springs from a childhood aspiration.

"I like fixing things," he said.

"There's so much more you can do [in orthopedics]. You're actually fixing something, and you can improve the patients' lives for many years to come."