Duncan Etches

Retired physician Duncan Etches considers himself fortunate for being able to combine his career with his love of world travel. “I think my wanderlust comes mainly out of a love of mountains,” he says.

Duncan’s passion for exploring mountains began while he was an undergrad at UBC, when he’d tackle some of the rock faces around Vancouver. His enthusiasm for the outdoors fuelled, in part, his decision to teach in Ethiopia for two years after finishing his first degree, which gave him the chance to climb in the mountains of East Africa. After his residency in New Zealand, followed by a posting in northern Canada, Duncan joined a teaching family practice in Vancouver. Over the years, he’s travelled abroad to do development work in rural communities in Nepal, Georgia, Moldova, Pakistan, China, Argentina, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania, where he fulfilled a lifelong ambition to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

“Travelling, I think, becomes valuable if you can learn something along the way about what you can do better at home,” he says. Seeing how other countries deal with issues like public infrastructure, climate change, and income disparity inspired his ideas about community development and activism.

“I think it’s important to support public services,” says Duncan, who’s been a Knowledge Partner for over 20 years along with his wife Nora. “What we like about Knowledge Network are the programs you won’t get anywhere else that are educational for adults, entertaining for children, and have no ads in them. Knowledge needs supporting, and donations are the only way to make that happen.”

Duncan learned something else on his travels: “I didn’t know that Vancouver was beautiful growing up. It was just ‘home’. And then I travelled the world and I came back and wow, this is an amazing place. British Columbia is an amazing province.”