INSPIRING THOUGHTS ABOUT DENNIS BURKITT.

Burkitt, the name sounds very familiar to all of us, as we all know Burkitt lymphoma. When I went through his discovery story, many things fascinated and inspired me.

And I am sharing my thoughts here.

Burkitt lost his right eye at the age of eleven, but still he dint loose hope, he went to school, pursued medicine and he became a surgeon too. How much perseverance hardwork and involvement he must have put to reach the heights of a discoverer, with only one eye.

Burkitt was service oriented, and hence he volunteered for the Colonial Medical Service in West Africa.

Burkitt describes himself as a ‘simple bush surgeon’. He increased the number of surgeries from 17 to 600 with only one doctors’ assistance. Again it shows his hardwork, interest and passion for work.

Burkitt went on a three-month trip, travelled 10000 miles, covering 57 hospitals in eight countries, popularly known as the long safari. He regarded this long safari as a holiday with purpose. What a dedication, interest and curiosity he had, to travel 10000 miles, to find out the answers for his questions.

He dint stop with that. He was so curious to know its etiology that he made arrangements for the samples to fly from Kempala to Uk, to Epstein .

He made significant contributions in Burkitt lymphoma and hence his name was given to it. But even many years later, Burkitt continued to call it as African lymphoma, and as mentioned by his friend Cliff Nelson, ‘he tried hard to avoid having the tumour named after him’. This shows his humbleness.

His interest dint stop with one discovery. He was getting more interested into tumours and he was interested to know if tumours could vary based on geography. This led him to another major discovery in fibre hypothesis and he was called “fibre man’.

Burkitt believed that great ideas always come from small beginnings.

Burkitt met people, discussed with them and he tried to prove his hypothesis or ideas by experiments. Burkitt set up his name in another cancer in less than five years, and he could propagate that change in the diet pattern is a much needed change.

Such inspiring stories this man had throughout his life, setting up his name in Burkitts lymphoma and fibre hypothesis. Some of us might think that luck favoured Burkitt.  Yes, luck might have, given him the opportunity, but its because of its curiosity when he saw something new, his curiosity to find answers for his questions, his curiosities to experiment his ideas, his curiosities to find solutions for those ideas. His curiosity made him a medical superstar.

What a energy level and vision this man had!!!

                                                                                       Written by Dr.Priyavadhana