World Spine Care Europe welcomes Adam Wilkey as the incoming President to the World Spine Care Europe Board of Directors.
Introducing Adam Wilkey, the incoming President to the World Spine Care (WSC) Europe Board of Directors. Adam is a Chiropractor, a husband and father of six children, and four grandchildren. Executive Director, Stefanie Ince sat down with Adam to discuss his work with WSC, and his vision for WSC Europe in the months and years ahead.
Adam Wilkey, Pres. WSC Europe Board of Directors, instructs the team in the WSC-MGM clinic, Navi Mumbai, India.
SI: Thank you for taking the time to share your story with the WorldSpine Care Community! Tell us a little bit about yourself!
AW: Thank you, Stefanie, I’m very happyto be involved. A little bit about me: Iam married to Esther and we have six children who are dotted all over thecountry and world. We are multinational with our kids marrying or beingpartnered with Brazilian, English, French, and German partners. We nowhave four grandchildren, with another on the way (fingers crossed all goeswell), they are all my life! I’m also aChiropractor and have been practicing for more than 30 years!
SI: Congratulations on your new role as President for WSC Europe. How did you get involved with theorganization?
AW: That’s a bit of a long story, so I’lltry to share my journey.
After many years of practicing, Idecided that I needed a break. My family and I took off to Kenya for a year tohelp out with an educational charity that some friends were involved with. Duringour time there I did some clinical work and saw interesting cases and realisedjust how lacking access to meaningful care was for the vast majority of thepopulation. Children attended school with no food, having had nobreakfast. Malaria and AIDs were rampant killers that left familiesdestitute. Medical care of any kind was costly (in local terms) andbasic.
After an exciting and eventful year,we returned to the UK determined to discover how we could make more of adifference. It really did change our lives.
SI: How did you apply your experience in Kenya to spine care?
AW: When we returned, I enrolled on aMaster’s degree studying disaster healthcare, with a view to seeing how and if,chiropractic could be integrated into more of the mainstream, not just inmedical mainstream but general public health sphere and within communities. My dissertation was based upon the psychology of those caught up indisasters and saw the similarities with patients suffering with chronic pain.
Following my graduation from thecourse I started to look at ways in which I could become involved and docharitable work. After looking at what existed, I eventually decided to establishmy own charity, whose charitable aimswould be to take sustainable care into communities where it didn’t exist.
As I was commencing the process oflooking at the mechanism of setting things up, I found an article about WorldSpine Care, in Botswana. I recognised Scott Haldeman, the founder,studied the website, and decided that I probably didn’t need to reinvent thewheel.
I reached out to Scott to see if theywere looking for volunteers and I also spoke to a number of Europeans who hadbecome involved in some way with the charity and the general consensus was thatfor it too be really effective to establish a World Spine Care charity that wasregistered in Europe. The organizationalready had some strong leadership from individuals based in Europe, includingMargareta Nordin, who took on the role as the first President. And now, fouryears later, here we are!
SI: In your view, what are the key priorities for WSC Europe?
AW: As President, I want the organisationto succeed. I believe we have made an excellent start.
I would like to see us grow theorganisation with much more support from both within the various professionals whoare dedicated to spine care – as well as the general public. I would likeus to develop a strategy of how to get growth and use this growth to start toincrease the fulfilment of vision and mission of the organization.
SI: What does success for World Spine Care Europe look like to you?
AW: At this point my goal isn’t providingspinal care for every under servedcommunity because we are nowhere near that point yet. What successwould look like at this point, isunderstanding more clearly how we can achieve this in a way that is bothadaptable and achievable in a stepwise fashion.
We have some wonderful people workingin WSCE and what I am looking forward to most is continuing to work with theseand others who join the project. I am looking forward to seeing changestake place within the organisation(s) and peoples lives as a result of the workwe do. It’s great to see the change in the lives of the patients we help, butit’s also just as rewarding to see the changes in lives and attitudes of thevolunteers, in whatever capacity they work with the organisation.
To learn more about World Spine Care,or volunteering, visit www.worldspinecare.org or email Stefanie Ince, Executive Director: stefanie.ince@worldspinecare.org.
