A city standard of medicine;

a country standard of care

Want to know the story of the shoes?

The Webbs often use Japan as a stopover between Australia and the UK where Dr Stephen’s dad and sister live. They were on their way back from a visit in 2007 when Dr Stephen began developing painful blisters from his sandals and decided a soft pair of running shoes would solve the problem. He came home with his first pair of Nike shoes. They were simple black.  

Three years later in 2010 after the next journey to visit family they made another visit to the sports store to purchase updated pairs of the now much loved shoes. This time the store had green, red, and blue shoes on offer. Young Jemimah, 8 at the time, suggested he buy all three colours. She also suggested that he wear one of each pair. Against the advice of wife, Jeanne, Dr Stephen started wearing odd shoes the very next day…and the rest is history.

During the flood the next year, Dr Stephen wore boring brown lace-ups during a television interview. Patients were horrified – this wasn’t the Dr Stephen they knew. Was he depressed? Clearly the odd shoes were firmly entrenched already.

Maintaining the odd shoes has proved a bit of a challenge. Nike doesn’t quite understand the need to produce collections of matching shoes styles with a number of colour options. Not being able to visit Japan during the pandemic, which seems to have a better choice of colours, has further exacerbated the problem. Currently his shoes include red, black and yellow options. He looks forward to the day that he can replenish his collection once more.

Written by one who was there.