Gutsy lady

I met a very special person yesterday: Dr Jemilah Mahmood, the gutsy founder of MERCY Malaysia, who was in Penang to receive the second Dr Wu Lien-Teh award for Leadership in Public Health. Later, she delivered a very absorbing lecture on her pet subject of Planetary Health. 

I had heard about MERCY Malaysia - she's no longer heading this humanitarian aid organisation, by the way - long before the organisation's involvement with the Acheh earthquake relief work in 2004. A brave lady indeed, she was even shot at and injured while delivering medical aid to Iraq a year earlier. (I didn't ask about her injury but I was told that she treated herself for a wound on her hip before continuing on with her work.) Needless to say, but I'm saying it anyway, it was a very big thrill to have met her finally!