Sports and Spiritual Healing: A Canadian Doctor's Gift To Israel

Canadian sports doctor Anthony Galea got more than he bargained for when he followed his heart to Jerusalem five years ago. Since then, the illustrious doctor to Toronto Argonaut footballers, Canadian Olympic athletes and American NFL'ers has found his life inexplicably intertwined with Israel. He has devoted his life to bringing Canadian-style sports medicine and practice to the country's best hospitals and is using home-grown Canadian sports medicine practices and technology to heal Israeli soldiers.

Galea, raised as a Catholic by Canadian parents of Maltese descent, works specifically with the Sheba Medical Center's Rehabilitation Center, part of Tel Hashomer Hospital just outside Tel Aviv where he has formed the Canadian Friends of Sheba charity . Every three months, "plus or minus a week" he says, since 2001 Galea has been leading a mission to Israel bringing with him influential Canadian and American Christian and Jewish business people to the Holy Land.

They include Toronto businessman Jeff Royer and Toronto Argonaut's owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski.

The Sheba Hospital in Israel runs a rehabilitation centre, the largest of its kind in the region, that features state-of-the-art virtual reality technology for physiotherapy; the hospital's technology, which is some of the best in the world, can be used more optimally, believes Galea, who uses his time and expertise and technology from his private centre in Toronto to help with the recovery of Israeli soldiers and high-profile athletes.

Since Israelis do not play a lot of hockey, baseball or football like Canadians, they can use help with developing sports medicine and exercise physiology practices in other areas, says Galea - a McMaster University Medical School graduate, and University of Toronto faculty member considered one of best sports medicine doctors in the world.

Galea has treated Canadian hockey players such as Gary Roberts, and Canadian track superstars such as Donavan Bailey, Mark McKoy and Perdita Felician.

Choosing Israel as a cause is somewhat of an unusual move for the Catholic boy raised in Etobicoke, Ontario. He plans to make the mix more unusual by speaking Hebrew and currently studies once a week.

One could say Galea's unusual connection to Israel started with a vision. Staying close to his private medical practice in a condo in Toronto's downtown Yorkville neighbourhood, Galea found himself tossing and turning in bed for no apparent reason. Three words circled his head for several nights. They were bringing a message that he couldn't shake.

He heard, "Go to Jerusalem."

It was strange, he admits. As a child, Galea hadn't spent much time in church listening to sermons about the Holy Land nor was he overly familiar with the Christian missions that travelled to Israel for religious pilgrimages.

But Galea had the conviction and rational mind of a scientist and was curious to understand as to what his heart was saying. A week later, he made the mantra of going to Jerusalem a reality and arrived to Israel. It was 2001 and not long after the violence from the second Intifada had erupted. Despite the warnings, he travelled around Israel ending up at a tear-shaped chapel, Dominus Flevit, at the Mount of Olives in an ancient olive grove. There, he had nothing short of a spiritual epiphany that changed his life forever.

"It felt like someone had put an intravenous in my veins and poured in a combination of fire and love," recalls Galea by telephone from a Mississauga-based clinic where he works once a week.

Although he didn't get any clear answers, the feeling was too extreme to ignore. Soon, he would find himself rehabilitating survivors of deadly terrorist attacks in Israel; and then leading other influential Canadians who had never before visited to come to Israel.

Galea's uncanny draw to Israel and medicine has probably earned him a reputation as one of Canada's most interesting philanthropists. Last year he was featured in the New York philanthropy magazine, Lifestyles.

"Why do so many people not want a country to exist? I don't understand," says Galea. "Israel is a very small country. There is no oil. Only desert. The only thing I can figure out that it must be something greater. More divine."

Currently Galea reaches for divinity through his work and is trying to raise money for Sheba's new head trauma department. He would also like to raise money for a mobile rehabilitation unit for soldiers and others in development towns, kibbutzes and other remote locations in Israel.

Now living far from Israel in the Bronte Village neighbourhood of Oakville, Ontario, Galea plans on being in Israel November 22.

"Israel has a great medical system and a good medical infrastructure. It just needs to find ways to use some applications of sports medicine principles with its high-tech - which can be valuable to soldiers and the general public," says Galea whose notable sports medicine achievements in Canada include being the team physician for the Canadian 100 Metre sprint team at the summer Olympics in Sydney, team physician at major Track & Field and Freestyle Skiing Championships since 1989; Galea has also been the team physician at the Toronto Marathon, the Canadian National Figure Skating Championships and Major Tennis Championships (Players International, Du Maurier Women's WTA Canadian Open), and tennis championships such as Players International and Du Maurier Women's WTA Canadian Open.

Galea married a former tennis star from Canada - and she is soon to give birth to their sixth child. It is "kids and families," that Galea sees as most important to both Israel and Canada. "Israelis want the same freedom as Canadians. Like to be able sit with friends and talk over a glass a wine - and you know - all the things we do here in Canada."

And it is hard for him to see the negative press about Israel on television. But there is one aspect about Israelis that keeps Galea drawn to going to Israel time and time again. "Israelis have a certain tenacity and are free spirits. Everything is there and inside them. They are a touch of Europe, a touch of America and a touch of the East.

While juggling clients on a busy Wednesday morning, Galea repeats the question, "Am I a super-ambassador to Israel? I don't know," he responds. "It is hard to say what drives me. I am not getting paid for what I do and pay for my own hotels and flights. What can I say? I love Israel."