St Kitts Citizen of the Month

2009-07-11 14:37:47 by

In 1623, Sir Thomas Warner, his family, and fourteen others arrived on the island at what is now Sandy Point. These English settlers were soon followed by Pierre Belain d'Esnambue, leader of French settlers, in 1625. The two groups wiped out the inhabitants of the island, Arawaks and Caribs, in a massacre at Bloody Point in 1626. African people were brought to the island from the 1630's to work as slaves on sugar and tobacco plantations. As a result, a rich culture combining elements from Africa, Europe and native America has evolved.

St Kitts Tourism every month picks a notable citizen to feature, and this month, Dr. Cameron Wilkinson received the honor. The state, "Dr. Wilkinson has been practicing as a physician and surgeon in St. Kitts for the last nine years now. He is the Chief Surgeon and Medical Chief of Staff of the Health Institutes in St. Kitts. He is also President of the Rotary Club of Liamigua, President of the UWI Alumni Association and Vice President of the St. Kitts Medical Association. He is also a council member on the executive of the Caribbean College of Surgeons.

"He was born in Basseterre, St. Kitts on April 20, 1963. His mother, Theresa Wilkinson, was a devout Christian and instilled in him Christian principles which guide his life today. He was very close to her, a single mom, but she passed away when he was age eleven. Cameron thought that her death could have been prevented with timely surgical intervention and decided then, that he wanted to become a surgeon and work, in St. Kitts, helping his people.

"In1982 he obtained the best ?A? level results in St. Kitts/Nevis, won the State Scholarship and went on to study medicine at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. Dr. Wilkinson graduated with an MBBS degree in medicine and surgery in 1989. Upon completion of a two year internship at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau, Bahamas, he was accepted into the general surgery residency program at Harlem Hospital in New York City. He completed the five year surgical residency program in 1996, winning the Program Director?s Prize for the most outstanding Chief Resident. Cameron also obtained a Citation for Outstanding Service to the Greater Harlem Community, New York in recognition of his five years of dedicate service during his residency. He did a one year residency in Critical Care and Surgical Endoscopy and after passing his Surgical Board exams to become a Diplomate of the American Board of Surgery. Cameron returned home to St. Kitts in 1997 to fulfill the promise he had made, to himself, back in 1975 when his mother died. However, in 2005, he visited New Orleans where he received the distinguished honour of being inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS).

"Dr. Wilkinson is married to Patricia Skerritt-Wilkinson and they have three children." Congratulations on being amed Kittian of the month.