A Manitoban man is proving to himself that anything is possible, including making a mid-life career change and going to medical school.

Stephen Dueck says growing up on a farm in southeast Manitoba taught him hard work. This is a mentality that helped him to obtain his Master of Science in computer engineering, working around the world in places like Saudia Arabia and Nigeria, and stretching past Earth with the European Space Agency's tech.

"Everything I did as a computer engineer became increasingly about relationships for me," Dueck says. "I found the actual technical solution, it wasn't the most important thing."

A conversation with a manager sparked a thought for Dueck.

"I started asking myself 'what if I was as smart as I thought I was?' Which is, in some ways, it's a crazy thought. I think everybody thinks they are smart and capable in (their) own way but I started really challenging myself."

s dStephen Dueck has travelled around the world, but now, his latest mission is close to home. (Stephen Dueck/Facebook)

In the after-hours of his day job, he began volunteering with people, like newcomers to Canada.

"It really did something to my heart and I wanted that volunteering thing that I was doing after hours to become a full-time part of my life; to be something I thought about and did all the time."

He says using the gift he has been given to quickly learn from books, Dueck decided to go to medical school.

"The simplest idea that I have is that the word sacred and the word sacrificed come from the same root. So that the way that I sacrificed the life that I've been given should be sacred and sacrifice as an expression of love, I think in terms of spiritual matters, is the simplest orienting principle that I have."

Watching that sacrifice in his loved ones as they parent, Dueck is inspired.

Max Rady College of Medicine #whitecoat underway for first group of Class of 2025. pic.twitter.com/5qcS7afSNz

— U of M Rady Faculty (@UM_RadyFHS) August 25, 2021

"Going back to the idea of 'sacrifice is love,' it was that level of sacrifice and that level of love that really set the standard for me in my own life. So what I am trying to do with medicine is trying to do something that matches that level, or maybe gets in the neighbourhood of it."

As he enters the "second half" of his life, Dueck is thinking about how technology can help people who are historically marginalized in healthcare. 

Dueck says after donning his white coat, he is keeping it close by all day long.