ORANGE general practitioner Dr David Howe has been honoured for his commitment to children with cancer and the people of Orange, with an Order of Australia Medal in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
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Dr Howe volunteers three times a year at Camp Quality camps, where children battling cancer are given the opportunity to get away, have fun and make friends with other children in the same situation.
He has been doing it for 20 years and says he still looks forward to it, and finds it extremely rewarding.
“I first became involved with Camp Quality when Martha Brown knocked on my door and asked if I could help out with a camp. I just thought it would be for that first year,” he said.
“Last year when I was named as Citizen of the Year I thought that would be the height of my fame, but then I received the letter and I couldn’t believe it.
“It is a huge honour.”
Dr Howe says he also thoroughly enjoys the graduation or senior camps, as he has known many of the participants since they were young children.
“Chemotherapy for the children is just so much more improved now than it was in the past and when they come to camp they are in a situation where they can have oral chemotherapy,” he said.
He says it is rewarding to see young people who have survived cancer coming back to volunteer at camps as part of the Camp Quality family.
Dr Howe has been a general practitioner in Orange since 1980 and is a visiting medical officer at Orange Health Service, and has been the Forensic Medical Examiner for the Orange Sexual Assault Service since 1990.
He has also been involved with the CYMS Rugby League Club since 1984.
In 2010 Dr Howe was awarded the prestigious Paul Harris Fellow after being nominated by the Rotary Club of Orange Calare.
Last year he was named as Orange’s Australia Day Citizen of the Year.
janice.harris@fairfaxmedia.com.au
