Jack Preger visiting rural clinics in West Bengal
Jack Preger was born on 25th July 1930 In Manchester, England, UK. He graduated from St Edmund's College Oxford in PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) in 1952. His main interest however was farming, and in 1956, after several positions in agriculture he settled down on his own farm in a remote corner of Wales, thinking that his life and career were now on a steady, predictable course. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
An odd series of events compelled him to study medicine, and in 1965, he was accepted as a mature student at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland.
As a newly graduated doctor aged 42, he answered an appeal in Bangladesh where he worked tirelessly amongst massive human suffering in refugee camps, and set up various clinics and medical centres for the poor. He uncovered a heinous trafficking of young children in 1977 that implicated several highly placed officials. His subsequent vociferous campaign against it, and attempt to trace a large number of missing children led to his deportation in 1979. His medical facilities were requisitioned, and his patients thrown out on the street. Some died as a result. His actions however finally led to a tightening of the regulations governing child adoptions, and to the arrest of some of the perpetrators. On behalf of some of the heartbroken parents, he continued trying to trace the whereabouts of some of the children who disappeared during this time, but in most cases was unsuccessful. Their fate is still not known.
After his deportation from Bangladesh, Jack moved to Calcutta in late 1979, working initially for Mother Teresa, where he found too much attention was paid to devotional activities and prayer, and too little time devoted to hands-on care. This lead him to begin treating the sick and the dying where they lived - on the streets - and to the beginning of his famous pavement clinic and other services to the poor which operate to this day, despite an ongoing battle with the Indian authorities, which on numerous occasions has led to his expulsion, and a term in a Calcutta prison.
His secular devotion to the poor is a source of inspiration to increasing numbers of people around the world. His charity, Calcutta Rescue is run by a team of doctors and volunteers, and financed by a number of support groups in various countries.
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