Join me for an hour of photos, storytelling and conversation pertaining to my new memoir Hand on My Heart: A Canadian Doctor’s Awakening in Afghanistan.

Hand on My Heart juxtaposes Maureen Mayhew’s experiences as a foreign, female physician in Afghanistan with an exploration of identity as a professional woman in the 21st century. Travelling from one remote outpost to another, sharing cups of tea in secret, muddling through language barriers, and brokering trust with patients, she finds her Western beliefs challenged and tries to make sense of her own struggles with gender roles. With curiosity and tenderness, she reflects on moments of disorientation, fear, wonder, joy and personal growth. Mayhew’s memoir is a moving account that takes readers along an uncharted path into mysteries of the human heart.

Maureen Mayhew is a family doctor, a clinical professor at UBC, and a certified leadership coach. She has spent three decades providing primary care and leading public health programs across Canada, Asia and Africa, and currently works for the BC Physician Health Program. A life-changing Doctors Without Borders mission to Afghanistan in 2000 inspired her to spend the next decade supporting Afghans to rebuild their shattered healthcare system, and to improve maternal and child health in remote settings. Hand on My Heart: A Canadian Doctor’s Awakening in Afghanistan is her first book.