DOCTOR Michael Marks has been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for dedication to the poor and sick in Africa.
The GP, who is the son of the late Arthur and Joyce Marks, was born in London on 29 May 1945 and educated at Victoria College. He trained at St Mary’s Hospital in London and returned to the Island to practise in 1974, which he continued to do until he retired last year.
In the mid-1990s, realising there was a need to support the growing number of heroin addicts in the Island to turn their lives around, he took himself off to Edinburgh to learn about techniques that would help them. His strong connection with Africa began when he went on an Overseas Aid trip to Rwanda in 1987 and became aware of crippling levels of need in the continent.
Dr Marks went on, with two others, to set up the Bush Hospital Foundation, a charity registered in the Island which now provides large levels of equipment, medical supplies and other aid in a number of Africa countries. He is also employed as medical adviser for Africa for the agency Direct Relief International.
Dr Marks said that he was absolutely amazed to be made an MBE. ‘I am delighted and honoured,’ he said.
