Medicine and modelling matters with Dr Naicker – Glencoe’s homegrown all-rounder who cares

When one takes a healthy dose of passion, combined with a prescription of perseverance and adds a vial of care, the end result is none other than, home-grown oncologist Dr Poobalan Naicker.
Dr Naicker, also known as Jason, was born and bred in Glencoe and attended Glencoe Primary School and ML Sultan Glencoe Secondary School respectively. After matriculating he flew the coop to the University of Witwatersrand where he graduated in the top ten.
The seed of wanting to cure cancer was sewn
When asked where his love for cancer research had developed, Dr Naicker explained, “It was in my community service year that I was exposed to cancer treatments, and fell in love with the discipline. For the first time I realised that cancer is not all doom and gloom, that there are many success stories that go unnoticed, and that even if a patient’s cancer is incurable there still is an opportunity to make a difference in his/her life”.
With the mantra of making a difference, Dr Naicker went on to specialise in internal medicine and spent another two years sub-specialising in medical oncology. Before he went on the tackle-the-world-of-cancer and cancer patients, Dr Naicker spent two years working as a medical advisor in oncology for Janssen-Cilag. ‘This experience gave me a different perspective on medicine, discovering the goings on on the other side of the medicine spectrum: how drugs are developed, the research that goes into a product so that it can be deemed safe for use in humans, etc,” Dr Naicker enthused.
Today at 38, Dr Naicker has a good few accomplishments in both the worlds of medicine and modelling under his belt. Currently he is a consultant specialist physician/ medical oncologist in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Charolette Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
He also is the proud owner of a Private Practice at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Parktown.
The Charolette Maxeke Johannessburg Academic Hospital, is the only centre treating all adult cancers including leukemia in southern Gauteng, servicing a population of over 10 million, and occasionally treating patients from Mpumalanga, the North West province, and even KwaZulu-Natal. Dr Naicker added that, ‘Our unit is a busy one, seeing an average of 120 patients a day, five days a week, we do everything from administering chemotherapy to performing bone marrow transplants on select patients”.
The kaleidoscope of his career
Reviewing the kaleidoscope of his career, Dr Naicker shed some light on the challenges, downsides and highlights of his career. “The biggest downside to my career is that oncologists are generally seen as the ‘bringers of bad news’. I have many people asking me how do I work in a field where there is so much pain and suffering, and my response is that I chose this to make sure there isn’t any, to give people dignity and comfort as they battle their disease. Highlights would be the fact that in my career there’s a sense of fulfilment every day, knowing that I have made a positive impact in so many of patients lives”.
Dr Naicker attributes his success to his parents, teachers in High School, Mrs Singh and Ms Jhilmeet and two oncologists that he worked with during his community service year: Drs Adam Nosworthy and Georgia Demetriou.
Modelling matters
Dr Naicker left working gruelling hours in a white coat with a stethoscope to working it on the modelling runway for a short period and has earned the the coveted spot of being in the top ten for the Calvin Klein competition. Dr Naicker has since left the runway as modelling requires a lot of one’s time, time that is not freely available when one is working in medicine. Dr Naicker described this experience as one used to get him out of his comfort zone.
In his down time, Dr Naicker can be found reading up on the ever-evolving field of oncology, newer treatments and new drugs.
Dr Naicker is the epitome of success and hard work and serves as an inspiration to other Glenconians wanting to make it big. He left the youth with the following message, ‘A career in medicine is not easy. There are long days, lots of studying which never really ends because it’s a continuously changing field. But, with perseverance anything is achievable, and growing up in a small town should not mean that you should dream small. In my career I have been afforded many great opportunities, I get to travel all over the world, and I get to interact with people from every walk of life.
“My advice: don’t be afraid to challenge yourself, anything is possible if you dream it”.