From beauty queen to sterling medical practitioner, Nicole Moore-Clarke is a ‘Special Person’

Jun 23, 2019 News, Special Person

---

Pull Quote: “I always wanted to be a medical doctor. I think from the age of probably 10, I liked pretending to be a doctor. When I sustained cuts and so on, I would try to clean it, and I would do the same for my brothers…if anyone got ill, I wanted to take care of them.”

By Sharmain Grainger

When she flirted with pageantry life back in the day, Nicole Moore, now Clarke, was caressing the idea that maybe this was her forte. After all, the Miss Guyana crown was within reach and many were even ready to wage war to prove that she was deserving of it when she was adjudged merely first runner-up back in 1991.

But her discerning father, former Ombudsman Justice Winston Moore [God rest his soul], somehow knew this wasn’t a fight his daughter needed to pursue. In fact, during an interview, Nicole admitted that her father, from the inception, was not fond of her decision to embrace a life of pageantry, and had indicated as much. He gave in to the pressure of others and most importantly, he probably did not want to deprive his eldest child and only daughter of an experience that would have eventually helped to mould her into a human being who had no doubt of her destined path.
After that controversial Miss Guyana pageant experience, Nicole knew without a doubt that pageantry wasn’t her purpose, but rather, she was wired for the field of medicine.
Even as a young child, she had an ingrained passion for doctoring wounds she and her three younger brothers sustained. “I always wanted to be a medical doctor. I think from the age of probably 10, I liked pretending to be a doctor. When I sustained cuts and so on, I would try to clean it, and I would do the same for my brothers…if anyone got ill, I wanted to take care of them,” Nicole recalled.
FORMATIVE YEARS
On August 15th, 1971 Justice Moore and his wife, Vera Romney-Moore, welcomed the first of their four children into the world. They named her Nicole Abosede Moore. Although they both hailed from Berbice, as a couple they made Bel Air Park, Georgetown, their home. It was there that Nicole remembers growing up. She attended St. Gabriel’s Primary School, but by the time she was about eight, her father decided that he wanted to study law and decided to do so in Barbados. He was not prepared to leave his family behind, thus the Moore household, for about three years relocated to Barbados, where Nicole continued her primary education.

Upon their return to Guyana, Nicole was able to secure placement at The Bishops’ High School. She has pleasant memories of her schooling years there and remembers well becoming Head Girl when she entered Sixth Form.
And given the fact that both her parents are from Berbice [father from Corentyne and mother from New Amsterdam], her young days were laced with many visits to the Ancient County to visit both her paternal and maternal grandparents during August vacations.
Easter holidays were no less exciting for the young Nicole, who recalls many kite flying outings at the Georgetown seawalls with her father, and the occasions the entire family would head to the National Park. “Growing up was very fun and carefree…you would go to school, get home, play and mingle with your friends; life was not stressful at all,” Nicole recounted.

BEING MOULDED
After completing her secondary education, Nicole headed to the University of Guyana to pursue a Science degree, which saw her majoring in Biology and minoring in Chemistry. Immediately out of university, she was able to gain employment at the Guyana National Bureau of Standards where she was able to contribute to the implementation of the ISO 9000 standard.
It was while working at GNBS that Nicole was afforded an opportunity to travel to India, where she stayed for three months, in order to gain advanced knowledge of the role entrusted upon her by virtue of her employment.
It was sometime after her return that she would meet a young man, Paul Clarke, an aircraft pilot, who would later become her life partner and father of her two children – Zarah and Imani.
Reflecting on how life unfolded for her, Nicole recalled that although she’d learnt that her husband had lived in the same community of Bel Air Park in which she grew up, their paths had never crossed until years later. Their meeting was through a mutual friend. “I did not know him at all growing up,” said a smiling Nicole whose exposure to the Miss Guyana Pageant, which placed her quite conspicuously in the limelight, might have been how she first caught his eyes.

Although she did avail herself to the pageant in 1991, Nicole confided that her entry was through no doing of hers, but rather, her name was submitted without her knowledge. “People would ask me if I wasn’t interested in the pageant, but I never really had the courage to do that on my own…so when the people [pageant officials] came to the house, it was a surprise. My father was reluctant, but in the end, he said that it was my choice and he would be supportive of my choice,” Nicole recalled.
Nicole entered the pageant as a favourite and many were confident that the Banks DIH-sponsored delegate was sure to easily walk away with the crown. But as fate would have it, the pageant ended quite controversially when another delegate was adjudged the queen and Nicole the first runner-up.
That exposure, however, caused Nicole to become the queen of the young pilot’s heart, who was bold enough to ask to be introduced to her. The two met, and of course hit it off immediately, and about five years later, they were tying the knot. They soon after migrated to Barbados because of his piloting commitment.
PASSION FOR MEDICINE
It was after giving birth to her two girls, that Nicole made the conscious decision to fully embrace her passion for medicine. Her younger daughter was still a baby at the time, but Nicole was prepared to do whatever was necessary to achieve this goal. So even as she juggled being a wife and mother, she pursued her pre-clinical studies at the University of the West Indies’ Mount Hope Campus in Trinidad. Nicole was able to complete her clinical studies in Barbados, and became eligible to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery in the year 2012.

But according to Nicole, “Even as a I did my studies, one thing I said is that I would never compromise my children’s childhood, in terms of them doing well. So they were able to maintain their top positions in school and were well rounded, complete with extracurricular activities. That was priority and was never compromised,” she disclosed with pride.
Nicole’s first official exposure to medicine was at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where she also did her internship. She’d also worked along with some other doctors afterwards, but was recently able to open her very own private practice. And like ants’ inclination to flock sugar, many patients who were exposed to Nicole’s personalised and keen services, have been gravitating to her private practice.
“Things just fell into place for me…it all started when a colleague of mine approached me and said this place is becoming available and enquired if I was interested. This was something I knew I wanted to do, it was my end goal. Last year, I was toying with the idea, but it was something that I kept putting off,” Nicole shared.
With the availability of the location that now houses her office, Nicole’s procrastination came to a screeching halt. “When I saw the place, I knew I had to make a ‘now or never’ decision, so I just bit the bullet,” Nicole joked, as she reminisced on the office-warming event which ushered in the start of her private practice. The event was graced by close friends and family members, including her ever-loving and very supportive mother.
RIGHT PATH
There is no doubt in Nicole’s mind today that she made the right decision. And she certainly intends to fully indulge in the aspect of her practice that she enjoys the most – wound management – which forces her to be very reminiscent of her young days when she was driven by a passion to care for the cuts and bruises she and her brothers suffered.

“Strangely enough, my colleagues say I have a gift to deal with wounds. People would come to me with all sorts of wounds and once I take care of them, they heal quickly,” said Nicole. Her constant advice to her patients is, “strive for a healthy lifestyle to prevent non-communicable diseases…focus on living a quality lifestyle.”
But although she feels accomplished in her adopted homeland, Nicole continues to embrace the belief that there is always more that can be done to improve. She certainly intends to continue to embrace a progressive path. Even as she evolves as a medical practitioner, she also enjoys family and personal time, as being a rounded individual is very important to her.
“I enjoy the beach…not necessarily swimming, but walking in the sand and seeing the sunset, there is something peaceful about that,” said Nicole. She is also an ardent reader of inspirational and motivational novels and autobiographies, and disclosed that she can never get enough of things cultural.
Being the people-oriented person she is, Nicole also holds the position of President of the Guyanese Association of Barbados, through which she is able to help many Guyanese who have migrated to that island nation.
“I help to look out for other Guyanese who are here and help to integrate them into the Barbados society…I am able to help them out in times of need. That’s my passion too; that’s my way of giving back,” said Nicole, whose leadership of the Association has even seen the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation benefiting from a dialysis machine.
Even as she continues to be an ever-enterprising human being with a passionate drive for her fellow man, today we at Kaieteur News recognise Dr. Nicole Moore-Clarke as ‘Special Person’ of the week.

---

---