I was not a brilliant student, but I had boundless curiosity and I worked
very hard. I remember one day walking home from school and witnessing a terrible
accident: two men working on the roof of a house crashed to the ground when the
scaffolding collapsed. I ran to fetch the doctor and I stayed and watched with
rapt attention as he dressed their wounds and set broken bones. I decided then
and there to become a doctor.
I think the death of Jane also influenced my life. She was a childhood
friend who suddenly, at the age of 14, began to wither away. She had diabetes,
and there was nothing we could do to stop her pointless death. As I helped to
carry her coffin to its final resting place I asked myself how it could be that
no doctor had found a cure for such a horrible disease.
I never imagined that I would be the one to discover insulin
