Dr Michelle Meiring is a Palliative Care Paediatrician based in Cape Town South Africa. She has worked in NGO and Academic sectors since qualifying as a Paediatrician in 2002.
It was while training in Paediatrics at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto during the height of the AIDS pandemic, that she felt God’s call to work in the field of Palliative Care for children. Her first NGO, called CHOMP (Children’s Homes Outreach Medical Programme) focused on HIV related issues in the Johannesburg children’s homes ranging from PEP for abandoned babies to adoptions, training of caregivers, hospice and palliative care. With its return to work in hospitals, CHOMP was renamed Bigshoes (medical interventions that enabled Orphaned and Vulnerable Children to grow up to fill big shoes) and expanded to Durban and Cape Town. Michelle moved to Cape Town in 2009, also to help set up a Postgraduate Diploma in Paediatric Palliative Care at the University of Cape Town. She still convenes this Diploma in addition to being the CEO of Paedspal NGO. Paedspal provides specialist Paediatric Palliative Care services to children in both public and private hospitals in the city and is also involved in training and capacity building in the field. Michelle is a passionate advocate for children’s rights and has been involved in many advocacy and policy making initiatives during her career culminating in being part of a steering committee who developed a national palliative care policy for South Africa. Her UCT work has provided opportunities to engage with child health care professionals across Africa. She hopes to focus more on this and on research going forward. Michelle has been a member of CMF since her student days and is now a director of CMF South Africa. Having benefitted immensely as a CMF member as a student, she enjoys giving back and providing mentorship to medical students at UCT. Outside of medicine, she loves being outdoors and doing anything creative (from baking to painting and woodwork).
