Kyle’s life ‘an inspiration’

TO generations of Irish people Jackie Kyle is a rugby icon but his heroics weren’t reserved for the oval ball.

A documentary to be broadcast on BBC1 Northern Ireland tonight recalls Kyle’s remarkable life on and off the pitch.

It charts his playing career highlights, captaining Ireland to Grand Slam success in 1948 to starring for the Lions two years later in New Zealand.

But it is the recollection of his subsequent life which is most revealing.

Kyle subsequently travelled to Indonesia to work as a surgeon for two years, before responding to an advert in a medical journal for a similar position in Zambia. Chingola, a mining town in the north of the country, would become his home for the next three decades.

He moved home to live in Bryansford, Co Down following his retirement ten years ago. Tonight’s documentary follows his return to Africa with his daughter Justine.

In the programme Kyle recounts the challenges he faced as the only surgeon in the area and the huge challenges medical staff faced with the growth of the Aids virus in the eighties and nineties.

The show’s presenter Thomas Kane described Kyle’s life as an inspiration.

“It is hard to describe the welcome Jack received. Everywhere we went in Chingola, people stopped him. Some were old, some were young, some were wealthy, some were from the townships. All, though, treated Jack with reverence. They were completely in awe of the man who had treated almost everyone in the region. As the only surgeon in Chingola and the next town, Jack had no specialists to refer patients to. If he did not perform the operation, regardless of the field, it simply did not happen. His enthusiasm for medicine still shines through.”

* Jack Kyle – A Cut Above will be shown tonight on BBC1 Northern Ireland, 10.45pm.