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Cancer
In the Loop: Her grandmother told her she was ‘meant to be a healer’
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Dr. Judith Kaur has spent her career improving the lives and health of American Indians, especially when it comes to the early detection and treatment of cancer.
Judith Kaur, M.D., is living the life her grandmother knew she would. As the Florida Times-Union reports, it was her grandmother who, when Dr. Kaur was just 5 years old, looked at her and told her she was "meant to be a healer."
At age 5, Dr. Kaur "didn't really know what that meant," but as the years went on, the paper reports, "the words from her grandmother, a member of the Choctaw Nation, stuck with her." While attending community college "a professor told her she should go to medical school," the paper reports. Instead she earned a degree in education and went on to teach science to junior high and high school students.
Her grandmother's words were still with her when, as a 30-year-old wife and mother, she applied to medical school "at the urging of her husband," according to the Times-Union. She was accepted into the Indians in Medicine program at the University of North Dakota and completed her medical degree at the University of Colorado.
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This story originally appeared on the In the Loop blog.
