Class of 1974 - 40th Reunion | 21 - 23 November 2014

 

 

Attendees

Beverley Adriaans, David Alperstein, Brynne Ascott-Evans, Peter Beresford, Haggis Black, Peter Bonafede, Denis Brown, Bruce Castle, Peter Chapman, Kathy Commerford, Peter Cooper, Tony Currie, Jacques De Haan, Arnold Di Bella, David Franklin, Ian Gilbertson, Laurence Sandler, David Shlugman, Ivan Schewitz, Peter Schwartz, Murray Solomon, Ted Sommerville, Revere Thomson, Helen Wainwright, Linda Wainwright, Paul Wannenburg, Brian Warren, Bernard Werner, Stanley Yankelowitz.

Thanks to Joan Tuff of the Faculty of Health Sciences Alumni Office, the 1974 reunion was a great success. This is the last year of Joan’s involvement and UCT are going to find it extremely difficult to replace her. Well done and thank you Joan for all your help and organisation.

The 1974 reunion followed the tried and tested formula that has been in place for many years.

The registration and lunch on Friday 21 November was followed by a tour of the UCT medical campus led by Professor Lauriston Kellaway. This was followed by a visit to the Pathology Learning Centre and the Heart of Cape Town (Transplant) Museum in the old main building of Groote Schuur Hospital.

The welcome cocktail party was opened by the Dean - Professor Wim de Villiers who reminded us all of the achievements that UCT had made, not only locally, but on the international circuit.

Saturday morning’s academic meeting was chaired by Professor Brynne Ascott-Evans and took place in the Wolfson Pavilion lecture theatre.

Presentations

Altogether 15 presentations were delivered with each speaker being allotted fifteen minutes. The talks covered a wide range of subjects:

  1. Pectus Excavatum. The Nuss Procedure (Ivan Schewitz
  2. Downhill (Stanley Yankelowitz
  3. Learning from Teaching (Ted Sommerville)
  4. Camera and Stethoscope – 40 Years in a Rural Practice (Haggis Black)
  5. The Real Meal Revolution (Tim Noakes)
  6. GP: SA vs GB (Denis Brown)
  7. South Africa and Millennium Goal 4 (Peter Cooper
  8. Busy Doing Nothing (Beverley Adriaans
  9. Jeans to Genes and the Future of Medicine (Bruce Castle)
  10. Surgical Practice in a Litigation-Prone Society (Brian Warren
  11. The Awake, the Asleep, the Dead (David Shlugman)
  12. Is Inventing an Incurable Disease? (Donald Miller
  13. Life After Medicine? (David Franklin)
  14. Establishing a Culture of Patient Safety (Peter Beresford)
  15. Coming Full Circle – Reducing Neonatal Mortality in a Resource Poor Setting (Jeffrey Perlman)

Photo Gallery

Image removed.

A big thank you must go to Brynne Ascott-Evans who kept a very tight reign on the meeting with only one speaker allowed to go over the allotted time. This led to good audience participation and plenty of time for lunch.

Saturday evening’s gala dinner was held at FullerHhall with 74 guests. Good food, excellent acoustics, more than enough beverage - great atmosphere.

Tim Noakes kept us entertained with the “gees” of UCT by presenting the great comeback by the UCT rugby team when they defeated Potchefstroom in the Varsity Cup final this year . The audio-visual had all the guests out of their chairs shouting with joy as UCT scored the final try – even though we already knew the result!

Sunday morning kicked off at 6h30 with the Life Healthcare Medical 10.  At 8.30 we walked on the slopes of Table Mountain from Rycroft Gate up Cecilia ravine and along the contour path back to Kirstenbosch gardens.

After a tour of the gardens we had a picnic lunch where we all relaxed and said our good byes.

Report by Barry Penn