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Local doctor wins award

A local physician recently received the My Family Doctor award, which acknowledges the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Cecilia Siegling of Prince George was presented the award from the B.C. College of Family Physicians in Vancouver on Saturday.
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Dr. Cecilia Siegling recipient of the My Family Doctor award for 2017.

A local physician recently received the My Family Doctor award, which acknowledges the doctor-patient relationship.

Dr. Cecilia Siegling of Prince George was presented the award from the B.C. College of Family Physicians in Vancouver on Saturday.

"This award is to honour and celebrate the relationship between a family doctor and their patient and this relationship is very important in providing health care - it's integral," Siegling said, who graduated from the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 1999, came to Canada in 2002 and settled in Prince George in 2006.

Siegling said she's honoured to be the recipient of the award.

"It's a privilege to walk the path with my patients and provide them with health care," Siegling said.

"Sometimes that path is joyous and sometimes that path is filled with heartache but it's not walked alone."

Siegling has a solo practice and said she has a diverse group of about 2,000 patients, which is an average number of patients for a physician practicing alone, she added.

"It can be challenging but it's very rewarding work," Siegling said.

"I feel receiving this award is a token of appreciation."

Siegling, her husband Rudi, and her three children Marileen, 9, Rhianna, 7, and Reinhard, 5, live on an acreage just outside of Prince George.

"Balancing work and family life at times is challenging," Siegling said, whose husband is in his third year of the northern medical program and is often away for several weeks at a time as part of the course. "One of the things I quite enjoy and something I find very restorative and fun is that I have chickens and they are just mesmerizing. You can have the worst day ever and just go sit down and watch them and you leave light hearted and restored. So presently that's one of my favourite hobbies."

Siegling believes that her relationships with her patients extends to her medical office assistant Shannon.

"My right hand Shannon - I cannot even put it into words - I've just been truly blessed to have her as my medical office assistant," said Siegling. "We make a good team. The way she runs my office for me, I think, adds to being able to provide good patient care and strengthens that patient-family doctor relationship."