Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Western Endeavour - Issue No.: 405 Issue Date: 5 Sep, 2010

Members of the Rotary Club of Western Endeavour had the pleasure of witnessing the presentation of the cheque to this year's winner of the Jack Bercov Award, Sven Klinken at this week's meeting. Visitors to the meeting included Donella, Sharon and Rodney, Dr Jack Berkov's children and Dr Peter Klinken, Sven's father.

Michael Lee introduced the presentation with the following Jack Berkov Citation.

This is a special day in our Rotary year... where we present an award to a fifth year medical student in honour of Dr Jack Bercov

A much loved and respected Claremont General Practitioner and a former member of the Rotary Club of Claremont Cottesloe.

Jack was born in Perth, WA, in 1917; his parents came from Safad in Palestine. He was the only son in a family of six. Jack had always intended to become a doctor...and after studying at Highgate School and then at Perth Modern, he entered UWA in 1935 and studied for two years the units that were available in WA at that time. Lack of finances prevented him from continuing his studies in the Eastern States. So he left university and moved to Kalgoorlie to sell fruit and dry goods.

In 1938, he again continued his studies in Sydney....where still on a minimum budget... he lived in a room above a fruit shop owned by a friend. One of the biggest problems, he explained later, was the number of rats! This problem was soon overcome by the purchase of a carpet snake...! Jack graduated in 1942 and , in the same year, married Stella whom he had met in Kalgoorlie.

After two years, he entered into a partnership with Dr Leigh Cook in Claremont.... where he practised for the next 30 years until his untimely death in 1974.

Jack was held in the highest esteem by his patients and the community... for those qualities of selfless service which he showed as a family and community doctor....for the compassion and understanding of the problems and troubles of his patients......for the concern and humanity he gave to his community for 30 years...

Jack Bercov was also a committed Rotarian member of the the CC club.

In 1980, using monies raised by public donation, the Rotary Club of Claremont Cottesloe established the Jack Bercov Memorial Fund to honour and perpetuate the memory of JACK BERCOV.

Following the delivery of the citation, President Chris Ford presented Sven with his prize.

Sven responded, after thanking the club for the award, by providing some background of himself. He was born in Washington in 1986, moved to Melbourne and then settled in Perth with his parents. He attended John XXIII and then Scotch College and enjoyed sport and the sciences, particularly biology and how the human body works. He enjoyed a gap year and travelled to Europe, visiting many countries before settling down to his studies.

Why the medical field...due to the huge amount of work in the course, Sven has asked himself this question many times. However, there are a lot of positives in the field. During his studies, Sven completed an elective in New Zealand (sports medicine) and undertook his rural GP rotation in Wiluna where he was introduced to SPAM by the locum GP...the food truck only comes once a week He has also worked at Sir Charles Gairdner and Graylands during his studies.

Dr Lucy Gilks, co-ordinator General Practice, School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care addressed the meeting and gave members background of the school which was established in 1977 and an overview of the input the Discipline of General Practice has into the teaching of medical students in all six years of the medical course at UWA.

The club is fortunate to be involved with such a prestigious award to a student of the medical fraternity and is so doing, have the opportunity to meet some dedicated medical students...our futre medical practitioners