Born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) Dr. Norgrove Penny lived in Africa until age 11, where his father was a missionary doctor. His father’s work coupled with years of competitive swimming, formed Penny’s background for a career in both Sports Medicine and Medicine in the developing world.
Throughout Dr. Penny’s Orthopaedic Surgery Sports Medicine practice, he was incredibly involved with high performance sports medicine, as an active member of the Canadian Academy of Sports Medicine, an official team member during the World University Games, Commonwealth Games, and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Despite this hectic schedule, he still spent one month of each year volunteering abroad, feeling the need to improve Paediatric care in Africa.
In 1996, Dr. Penny relocated with his family to Uganda, where he lived for six years, working with CBM International, a non-governmental organization devoted to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities in low income regions of the world.
Dr. Penny’s work abroad began in the rural villages of Uganda where he strived to deliver accessible care for children disabled by the after-effects of polio, chronic osteomyelitis, angulatory bone deformities from nutritional rickets and clubfoot. During this time, Dr. Penny estimates he operated on approximately 150 cases of clubfoot annually. He also partnered with fellow BC surgeon, Dr. Shafique Pirani, to develop the Uganda Clubfoot Project, which has become the enormously successful model for treating clubfoot in the developing world.
Since returning to Victoria in 2002, in addition to being the only Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon serving Vancouver Island, Dr. Penny has continued to commit considerable time and effort assisting with CBM International. He consults, trains and participates in programmes around the world, such as Cure Clubfoot World Wide, The World Health Organization and the Pediatric Orthopedic Society for Africa. The operating base that Dr. Penny began in 1996 has since grown into a free-standing 80-bed pediatric orthopedic hospital and rehabilitation center with six operating rooms performing well over 2000 orthopaedic and plastic reconstructive procedures annually.
In 2007, Dr. Penny was awarded the Order of Canada by Governor General, Her Excellency Michael Jéan, for services to humanity.
RebalanceMD is excited to partner with Dr. Penny in further fundraising efforts for the valuable causes assisted by CBM International.
