UH/0784

GP donates prize to children

AWARD-winning local doctor, William McCallion, presented his £8,000 Lundbeck prize, scooped in October 2000 after winning the pharmaceutical company's Good Practice in Depression kudos, to three children's groups this week.
Among those sharing in the cash distribution at a lunch-time function in Omagh's Silverbirch Hotel was the West Tyrone Federation of Youth Groups which is organising a Euro Disney holiday for 12 children whose families were affected by the 1998 town-centre bombing. The other two groups which shared the windfall also have close local ties.
They were the Chernobyl Children's Project, promoted by Omagh College, which offers children affected by the nuclear power disaster holidays in the Omagh area, and the North West Romanian Children's Project which is supported by Omagh families.
The presentation was organised on behalf of Depression Alliance, the United Kingdom's national depression charity, which hosts the annual Lundbeck Award, Sperrin Lakeland Health and Social Care Trust which distributed the prize money, and Lundbeck Limited.
Dr McCallion won the award, now in its fifth year, for his treatment of Patricia McRory, who suffered serious depression after witnessing the Omagh bomb.
He was chosen by an eminent panel of judges who had received 500 nominations from patients across the United Kingdom, and whose brief was to reward excellence in helping patients with depression.