Anne–Marie Zajdlik, ‘88

Anne–Marie Zajdlik has raised almost $2 million dollars for HIV/AIDS care in Africa through her Bracelet of Hope campaign. She raised her first million over the course of a 3–year, relatively local campaign in Guelph. The goal now is to see a bracelet on the wrist of every Canadian and help one African country become AIDS–free.

Anne–Marie received her M.D. from McMaster in 1988. In her second year of medical school, she travelled to Dalhousie University in Halifax to take an elective course in infectious disease. She was inspired by an AIDS patient being treated at the hospital, and by the amazing work going on around her. After graduation, Anne–Marie worked with Dr. Stephen Landis at the Hamilton General, at that time the only doctor in the city who specialized in HIV positive patients. She moved her practice to Guelph, where she opened Ontario’s fourteenth provincial clinic and HIV treatment centre in response to the growing numbers of HIV/AIDS patients in the Guelph area. She has served as the clinic director since it opened in 2005.

Read more about Anne–Marie here.