Pioneer of medical community mourned
A pioneer of the Okanagan’s medical community and mentor to physicians, nurses and patients has died.
Bill Nelems, a world-class thoracic surgeon who helped open the Cancer Centre of the Southern Interior, passed away at his Coldstream farm early Saturday. He was 77.
“The medical community is mourning the loss of our beloved friend and inspirational leader,” said Dr. Michael Humer, a thoracic surgeon at Kelowna General Hospital. “He was a proud British Columbian.”
Born and raised in South Africa by Canadian parents, Nelems moved with his family to B.C. in 1978. He became the province’s first thoracic surgeon and helped centralize delivery of the surgery — the repair of organs in the chest — in Vancouver and Kelowna.
He became the Cancer Centre’s first administrator when it opened in Kelowna in 1997, recruiting several specialists to work there. He stressed the centre must have palliative and prevention programs, and found the funding for them.
As a young man, Nelems did surgical training at the University of Toronto and later performed the first lung transplant in Canada. He was recognized numerous times for his contributions to Canadian health care, receiving the 2009 Award of Excellence in Medical Achievement from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C.
Nelems was generous with his time away from the operating room. Among his endeavours was the partnership he founded between doctors and nurses in the Okanagan and their counterparts in Zambia to provide skills and improve medical care in the African country.
As a fundraiser for the Okanagan-Zambia Health Initiative, Nelems returned to Africa at age 70 with two Kelowna nurses in 2010 and cycled 4,500 kilometres across Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa. Afterward, nursing students from UBC Okanagan travelled annually to Zambia to learn and teach.
Nelems closed his surgical practice several years ago and became a professor emeritus at UBC. He pursued his interest in non-cardiac chest pain and worked as a certified counsellor and physician at the Okanagan Interventional Pain Clinic.
Nelems leaves his wife Mary Ellen, four daughters and their families.