Gaye Douglas called a hometown hero for work to provide access to medical care

Gaye Douglas

By: Patricia Burkett | SCNow
Published: August 25, 2008

Gaye Douglas gained inspiration early on to change the lives of children in her community.

While a single mother, Douglas went back to college and became a nurse practitioner. She brought her experience and education back home, with help from a university grant.

“While she’s a single mom and raising two teenage boys, she went back to college and spent several years doing that, and then wrote the grants for Duke University ... for this public clinic, and she’s just persevered in everything she’s done, and she’s a real role model for women in our community,” friend Ann Todd said.

Douglas applied for a grant through Duke to establish a clinic for students, faculty and community members in Florence School District Five. The clinic gives medical access to those who might have otherwise gone without.

“It’s important because there’s such a need in this community as it is in many rural communities, and it just felt like my mission in life to provide those services for the children,” Douglas said.

She said that the clinic started as an idea that turned into a makeshift nurse’s station in the gym of Johnsonville High School. Today, the clinic is in its own building on the school’s campus and is equipped with patient rooms and new technology.

Todd says Douglas never lost sight of her goals and knew that her knowledge would best be used to serve her own community.

Todd says students and faculty of the district are extremely grateful to Douglas, and she says Douglas serves as an example of what one can do when they set goals.

“I hope they can see her and know that through what she has accomplished in her life, that anything can be accomplished if you work hard enough and long enough ... even if it takes a long time,” Todd said.

Douglas said she kept her sights on doing whatever it took to help the community. She says her actions are not that of a hero, but instead of someone who loves their neighbors and has a desire to change their way of life.

“I don’t consider myself a hero. In my eyes, a hero is someone that puts themselves in danger for others. It just doesn’t seem like somebody that gets paid to do what they love, and this is actually what I do for a living. All I do is my job, I just love my job, and I try to do it the best that I can,” she said.

Douglas plans on working to expand the clinic’s efforts and making medicine accessible to everyone in the community, despite their economic situation.