Overcoming obstacles to live your dream
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Medical practitioner repeated matric three times to get a first-class matric and worked for several years in order to save for his medical studies.
Dr Harry Allan Broekman personifies the determination of the human spirit. It was his dream as a young boy to become a doctor, but he soon found out that it was not easy. In pursuit of his dream, he three times repeated his matric in order to achieve a first-class matric to get into Wits. His next hurdle was money, which his parents simply did not have, and he worked for several years as a bank teller in order to save for his studies. He finally got into Wits, and graduated with his medical degree in 1969.
He was registered as a medical practitioner the following year and worked at Coronation Hospital and South Rand Hospital. Dr Broekman passed away on 4 July 2013 and left R7 million to the Wits Medical School so that young people with a burning desire to enter the medical world, who do not have the means to do so, can be helped to fulfil their dream. For he understood and appreciated the obstacles that many people have to overcome.