Balancing Life in Hard Times
Balancing Life in Hard Times
Dr. Gill Hall, MBBS MRCGP DRCOG DTM&H*
On May 29th, 2020, the ICOC Women’s Service Team hosted a webinar with special guest Dr. Gill Hall, of the London International Church of Christ. Following is a bit of Gill’s history in her own words. If you happen to be wondering what all the letters following her name stand for, we’ve deciphered those credentials for you in a footnote at the end of her bio.
I graduated from the London Hospital Medical College, University of London, in 1989 as a medical doctor and did my junior doctor training in hospitals in and around East London. In 1994 I completed my specialty training and have been working for the last 19 years as a General Practitioner (Family Medicine Physician) at my practice in the borough of Newham, in East London, serving one of the most diverse and deprived communities in the UK.
I have been fortunate enough during my life and career to have had many adventures and exciting experiences, at times facing real life/death situations, at other times very painful personal issues such as infertility, failed IVF treatments, miscarriages and several very challenging family situations.
I was working on a research project at the Sickle Cell Unit in Kingston Jamaica when the full force of Hurricane Gilbert hit the island in 1988, and in 1993 worked as an Expedition Doctor in Zimbabwe and Namibia, travelling into other countries in East Africa, with the British Charity, Raleigh International. It was in Africa that I developed a love for work in the developing world and following another brush with death seriously started thinking about God and soon after returning to London, was invited to attend a service with the East London Church of Christ and I was baptised in April 1994.
In 1995, as a young Christian, I visited several HOPE programmes in India and was completely inspired by the work HOPE was doing. Later that year, I studied for a diploma in tropical diseases at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and in 1996 had the privilege of joining the original International Medical Team that started the Sihanouk Hospital Centre of HOPE, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, HOPE Worldwide’s largest project. I was put in charge of developing our HIV/AIDS work and was made Director of an amazing department as God blessed our work. I met my husband Dr Ferdie Cruz who was also part of the HOPE medical team from Manila, Philippines in Cambodia and we married in Phnom Penh in 1999 and returned to live in London in 2000.
We have two children and are part of the incredible family that is the East London Church of Christ, where I am affectionately known as ‘’Dr Gill.”
*MBBS – first professional medical degree, an undergraduate degree
MRCGP - Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners, a postgraduate medical qualification in the United Kingdom
DRCOG- Diploma of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists
DTM&H – Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, a postgraduate award.