Even when armoured plates had to be installed under his car, the 2010 Royal College Teasdale-Corti Humanitarian Award winner continued providing high-quality medical treatment in a country ravaged by more than 27 years of civil war.

"Despite the apparent dangers, I’ve had more fun here than I would have had anywhere else,” Dr. Foster said. "The average general surgeon in Canada does five or six different types of operations. I do more than 100 procedures, 1,400 times in any given year.”

Dr. Foster, 60, was born in Brantford, Ont., but spent most his childhood living in Zambia, where his father, Robert Foster, MD, worked as a missionary surgeon. In 1971, the young student had just completed his second year of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., when he decided to spend the summer working at a central Angola clinic.

"This is where I first fell in love with surgery,” Dr. Foster said. "It opened my eyes to the experiences and rewards that are possible in medicine.”

Dr. Foster later completed his general surgical training through the University of Toronto’s Gallie Course. But after entertaining offers from hospitals throughout southern Ontario, he returned to Angola, driven by the desire "to not turn my back on everything I’d seen and could do to help.” He has since founded surgical units in numerous hospitals, mentored dozens of nurses and surgeons, and helped design a postgraduate medical education training program.

"Here, you feel like you’re part of a community of people who are caring for people. We’ve come a long way in the past several years, and I absolutely wouldn’t want to practise anywhere else.” - Stephen Foster, MD, FRCSC