Ever since they were kids growing up in Fort St. James, Nathan Teegee and Todd Alec had a common goal of becoming doctors and they recently took a major step towards achieving it.
The two were among the 20 students to graduate from the Northern Medical Program last month - and among the people they're thanking for making the achievement are each other.
Teegee and Alec went to separate elementary schools in the community of 1,776 people 152 kilometres northwest of Prince George.
But starting in Grade 10, both were going to Prince George secondary school.
That was where a lasting bond was formed, in no small part because Alec had a car and Teegee did not.
Always at or near the top of his class, Teegee had an "intense drive to study."
"And I said, Todd you have to pick me up and we're going to go study," Teegee said.
"We're going to study whenever possible. We're going to shut down Tim Hortons, we're going up to UNBC.
"And Todd's very accommodating and I'm quite bossy."
And because of commitments to other things - notably rep hockey in the case of Teegee - it meant some long, sleepless nights.
"It was funny, Todd and I thought about it and we pulled more all nighters in high school than we ever did in undergrad or med school," Teegee said.
Upon graduating from high school in 2004, they went their separate ways for a time as Alec enrolled at UNBC and Teegee went to University of Toronto.
Teegee took an extra year to finish his undergraduate degree and Alec agreed to wait until he had finished before applying for medical school.
It worked out and by 2012 both were in the Northern Medical Program where they continued to support one another for the next four years.
"It's always nice to have a partner in crime," Teegee said.
"And when you're down in the dumps and your not feeling motivated to study, they're kind of saying 'c'mon, we've got to keep going' and vice-versa."
Teegee will now enter a five-year residency in Vancouver to specialize in dermatology and Alec is starting a two-year residency in Prince George to become a general practitioner. Alec will be working at the office of doctors Ed Turski, Lindsay Kwantes and Garry Knoll.
Both Teegee and Alec are aboriginal. While he grew up in Fort St. James, Teegee is a member of the Takla Lake band, a 2 1/2-hour drive to the north, and Alec grew up in Nak'azdli on the edge of the Fort St. James township.
Although still few in number, Teegee said doctors with First Nations roots are becoming less and less rare.
The two have long had an interest in medicine.
Teegee said his grandmother, Sarah, was a big influence. She worked at Stuart Lake Hospital and "always sung the praises" of Paul Stent, Marc Bosenberg and Denis Brown - "all South African doctors who came up work together in a group practice way back in the '90s."
She also became the hospital's first aboriginal-patient liaison.
"She was just a janitor at the hospital but Dr. Stent would lean on her," Teegee said.
"Half the community is First Nations and Dr. Stent had no idea how to communicate what their symptoms are. He would pull grandma (in) to translate."
Teegee said he was also highly motivated by the feeling he got when he saw his name at the top of the honour roll as well as by the competition that came with being in the same class as the doctors' children.
As for Alec, he said he wanted to become a doctor from a fairly young age.
"I just enjoyed the sciences and stuff so it was always kind of a big goal, probably closer to high school," Alec said.
Alec is working towards becoming a general practitioner because of the variety.
"I like the cradle to grave services," he said.
"You have a good diverse practice where you can really work with different types of medicine and I thought it would be good to work back home, being a family physician."
Alec has already found that being aboriginal can be an asset.
"The last patient I'd seen was a little bit more open to talk about some really difficult topics," Alec said.
But you don't have to be aboriginal to work with First Nations patients. Between finishing his undergraduate degree and entering medical school, Teegee worked in the Carrier Sekani Family Services' health department where he helped establish a program that allows doctors and nurses to consult patients on their own reserves, flying in by helicopter if need be.
"I think aboriginal and non-aboriginal doctors that understand the issues that First Nations deal with can equally do important roles for them," Teegee said.
"Of course, we'll say there is a preference for aboriginal doctors because we understand the struggles but I don't want to alienate non-First Nations who want to do the same work.
"It just takes a special type of person and a special type of character and understanding of the people to be able to do it."
Teegee chose dermatology because of all the rotations he went through while in medical school, it was the one he fell in love with.
"I had already been studying physiology and I thought I had already mastered the human body," Teegee said.
"The skin is a thing of its own and it was all so new to me and you really have to put a lot of work into it to understand it."
Teegee and Alec credit more than just each other for graduating from the program.
Both had accolades for their wives and immediate families as sources of support.
But there was also a fair amount of just digging deep within themselves.
"I kept keeping an eye on the prize and that really helps when you're super tired and you have quite a bit of assignments to do and exams," Alec said.
"You always kind of doubt it too, because not everyone gets into medical school."
