GRANGE HILL, Westmoreland – One of businessman Kadeen Mairs’ childhood memories is the pristine white shoes nurses in Grange Hill used to wear as they walked to work. Today, the road leading to the Grange Hill Health Centre is badly in need of repair, often muddy, and he cannot imagine the state of their shoes if they made the journey on foot.

Mairs is the newest benefactor of the health centre, and he is hoping the help he will provide will be complemented by road repairs. He and his family will provide $5 million over five years to help improve conditions at the Type Three facility. The goal is to make it more user-friendly for patients and staff and to ensure the equipment is up and running.

Mairs still remembers his grandmother making the trek from Top Lincoln in Grange Hill to get him treated at the health centre.

“As simple as it is, a lot of people cannot afford to take a taxi to Sav [Savanna-la-Mar] to get to the hospital,” he said as he stressed the centre’s importance as a point of first contact for many seeking medical care.

He is hoping his commitment to help will inspire others to act.

“It is a hopeful reminder that: No matter where life takes us, we can always find our way back home to give support and to strengthen the ties that bind us — to this I will always remain committed,” said the local boy who made it big.

In 2013, after leaving his job as a loan officer at National Commercial Bank, then 24-year-old Mairs launched a microfinance company called M24 Investments in Lucea, Hanover.

In 2017 he sold M24 Investments to Dolla Financial Services — a Jamaica Stock Exchange-listed company of which he was part-owner. Dolla was later bought by Stocks and Securities Limited which later sold it to the FirstRock Group.

Mairs is now the owner of a private equity company called Dequity Capital Management Limited, a privately held regional investment company that invests in multiple market segments including financial services, health care — in the form of two hospitals — real estate, business process outsourcing, and media.

His hometown clinic which he has vowed to help serves a population of 20,000 to 30,000 people in surrounding communities such as Crowder, Sterling, Church Lincoln, Belisle Road, Race Course, Top Lincoln, Mint Road, and Geneva.

There was some welcome news during the recent ceremony for the Adopt-a-clinic Programme. Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton, who said Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western Morland Wilson had been complaining about the state of the road, announced that it will be repaired.

Tufton told those gathered that he had just had a conversation with National Works Agency (NWA) CEO E G Hunter who gave a commitment that he would “make sure it happens”.

The health minister said the road had been neglected by successive administrations from both major political parties.

“The road is just bad,” conceded Tufton, who theorised that this could keep potential patients away.

“They are going to go straight to the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital,” he opined.

MP Wilson said he has been fielding complaints from medical staff and patients for years, and he has been working on a solution.

“I have been discussing with the minister [with responsibility for roads, Everard Warmington] for some time about what can be done. Some funds are identified through a special programme that the minister announced recently in Parliament, and we will be using the infrastructure components of that fund to address some of the concerns with the road,” he explained.

“We got NWA to come in and do some assessment. NWA themselves said this road has some serious work to be done because there is no drainage, no walkway — there is nothing here that would facilitate the smooth operation of our health-care facility. So the next move, the Adopt-A-Clinic initiative, is to see what resources are now available in addition to the money that is made available by the minister to repair this road,” added the MP.