Thanks to Dahm’s generosity, Lyndsay Sprigg, enrolled in the newly created Southern Medical Program, is a step closer to being able to fulfill her dream of practising medicine in a small BC community.
Dahm was born in England in 1921 and came to Canada as a war bride. She raised four children in Calgary before retiring with her husband to Vernon, BC, where she stayed active in the community, working as a volunteer teacher’s aide for twenty years and selflessly helping others. She lived a full life; known for her love of the arts, she published three books, travelled, painted and passed on her talents for dancing and singing to her children and friends.
Dahm was passionate about helping others and her community. Wanting to help children in the Okanagan after her death, Dahm decided that leaving money to medicine at UBC was the best way for her to do this. After her passing, the Allan Eugene Dahm and Jacqueline O’Neill Dahm Memorial Endowment Fund was created to provide bursaries for students enrolled in the UBC Faculty of Medicine Southern Medical Program at the University’s Okanagan campus.
Lyndsay Sprigg had always wanted to go into medicine and receiving a bursary from the Fund Dahm established is helping her live out her dream. “I definitely want to stay in BC long term, and I’m really wanting to work in a smaller community in BC”, says Sprigg. “That’s the main reason why I wanted to go to school in the one of the smaller sites like Kelowna.”
Sprigg may just be beginning her medical program, but her achievements already demonstrate a strong desire to help others through medicine and research. In 2011, Sprigg won an international prize for a research article she wrote in the area of cell dynamics and disease while still an undergraduate student. After graduating with a BSc in Biochemistry and Microbiology, she took these academic passions with her, working as a research intern with the BC Cancer Agency. “A lot of my research so far has focused around cancer research, working with different chemotherapy drugs and determining how they work and how and why they are effective, and I see that as being of real interest going forward”, she says.
Sprigg credits both the prize-winning article and her time at the Cancer Agency as “pivotal opportunities that really led me to where I am today.” Today, thanks to her own motivation and Dahm’s compassionate generosity, Sprigg is studying medicine; tomorrow, she could be saving lives in a small Canadian community.
Like Jacqueline Dahm, your legacy could have a real influence on both a student’s life and an area of research. Whatever your passion, from medicine to mathematics, UBC has a deserving student, researcher or project in the area. Establishing your legacy is an easy, tax-effective way to make a significant, lasting impact. Call or email the Gift and Estate Planning office now to learn more.
