Dr. Elrie Tucker has had a long and successful career.

The Trinidad native graduated near the top of his class and fought discrimination to become the first black ob-gyn at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

"There were quarters in medicine for different ethnic groups," said Dr. Tucker.

When he was trying to find work in the 1950s, he was often told "people like myself should go back to their country and help my own kind."

He went on to open a breast cancer centre and a birthing centre.

However he is most proud of founding the Quebec Black Medical Association which offers scholarships and mentors to attract black students to the medical field.

Decades later Neressa Noel is completing her second B.Sc. as the co-ordinator for the QBMA. She admires what Dr. Tucker accomplished.

"He's like me. He came to Montreal, he didn't know anyone and yet look at him now. Look what he's built," said Noel.

When Peter Quashie came to Montreal from Ghana to study biology he was shocked to be one of just five black students in a room of 300.

"That was an eye-opener for me," said Quashie.

Today he's VP Education for the QBMA and one of his most important responsibilities is reaching out to youth

"Our high school visits are so important because some kids in some neighborhoods don't see a lot of that," he said.

Akua Adinkrah learned about the QBMA in high school and shadowed Dr. Tucker before beginning her studies.

The experience was an eye-opener for her as well.

"I had never met so many black students in science as well as black professionals in medicine," said Adinkrah.

She said that convinced her to succeed in higher education.

"It's different when you see an example that you can follow. Someone who's been where you've been, has a similar background, and who made it.".

The trailblazer looks around at hospitals and science schools now, and sometimes wonders how much they know of history.

"I look at the young black, Indian, Chinese doctors walking around with their stethoscopes around their shoulders," said Dr. Tucker.

"I wonder if they could realize what it was like back in the 1950s."