Matilda Kerry came into limelight in 2000 when she won the crown as the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria. During her reign, her main concern was ‘Raising Awareness for the Leprosy Victims’ along Lagos-Benin Expressway. That became one of the high points because her reign afforded her the opportunity to tackle what has been on her mind. But shortly after her reign, Matilda maintained a low profile and little or nothing was heard about her. It was just recently that she came back on the scene, and rather than towing the glamour lifestyle of other beauty queens, she decided to do things differently. Matilda who is now a Medical Doctor, graduating from the University Of Lagos College Of Medicine focuses more on health, poverty alleviation, disability and illiteracy. Her George Kerry Life Foundation which she named in memory of her father, who was also a medical doctor and passed on 5 years ago, has been creating a lot of awareness recently on Cervical Cancer, Breast Cancer, Stroke and other life threatening diseases. In this interview with City People Fashion Editor, BOLA AKINBOADE she opens up on her life as a medical doctor, her projects and why she decided to do things differently from other beauty queens.
You are one of the ex-beauty queens in the country, but you decided to do things differently. Why is that so?
Already before I won the pageant, I was already a Medical Student, going to be a Medical Doctor that is what had always wanted to do. My dad was a doctor, growing up, I have watched him, have worked at the clinic, have seen the way he related with his patient. So medicine is something I fell in love with. So because of that, I didn’t let winning the pageant reshape had already dreamed of, which was being a doctor, helping people with care and charity. The fact is that being a beauty queen just helped me to modify the dream a little bit. I m more into public health, more into charity, but I still I went with my dream. Becoming a beauty queen is not meant to change your future, or whatever what your dream was in life, it’s just going to help you achieve it, help you modify it, and stream line it.
You have also kept a low profile that might explain why you are not as popular as other beauty queen after your reign. Was that a deliberate action?
Very deliberate, because the media, in as much as they help you get your message across, they could also be harmful in a lot of ways, if you open your personal life to them. I am sure it’s not something they do deliberately; no one goes out and says I’m going to destroy this person’s life, they are just reporting the news and they are just doing their job. But , you as an individual, as a celebrity, as who ever you are, that people are interested in, you have to know how to get this information out, you have to know what to protect. It was deliberate too. I have to protect myself from the harsh media; I have seen what the media has done with the other beauty queens. And personally I m a private person, some of my friends will say I m really secretive, some of my friends will say if you give me your worst secret, you will never hear it anywhere. So I m like really secretive and it cuts across into my private life.
Interestingly, this is the 10th year after your reign, so how has life been as an ex-beauty queen?
It’s been nice really, but you know, most of the impact I felt of being a beauty queen was that year I won, when you get a personal attention, you have the management team behind you, you get invited to all the big occasions. But immediately after that, I went back to medical school; I wasn’t really in the picture as an ex-beauty queen. I really didn’t let that modify what I could do as a person, some people get distorted after reigning as a beauty queen, they feel I can’t do this like everyone, I cant be caught in this kind of places, I didn’t let any of that change anything that I was doing. And because I wasn’t so much in the media, I could get away with pretty much whatever my peers were doing, whatever my fellow doctors were doing. So its been normal for me, occasionally, I do get, oh, she is the formal Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, you get the doors opening, you get people wanting you to do a lot of stuffs, but occasionally, not an every day paparazzi craziness.
You were the one that actually crowned Agbani Darego as Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria after your tenure, so when she won the Miss World, how did you feel?
Oh my God! I remembered that night, it was like unreal when it was happening, it was like really exciting for my friend, but for me, because she was my friend, and we are still pretty close, and we do relate , so it was interesting and that was the first time that Nigeria has ever won, so it was good, its still exciting.
But didn’t you feel slighted when she won and thought within yourself, oh it should have been me?
Not really because the odds of the Miss World is really high and I think that year was the first time they were asking different countries to vote, so there were so many elements apart from her looking gorgeous, stunning , brilliant and stuffs, which pushed her into that position, my circumstances are totally different, and all the other beauty queens. You are talking about 100 of the most beautiful women in the world. So you can see that and say, oh, it could have been me. It’s just really exciting to see her win.
You still maintain a strong relationship with Agbani years after your reign which is very rare in other beauty queens. What explains that bond?
It was something that happens because immediately after she won, and Agbani is such a wonderful person, she is very open; she asked a lot of questions, so she really wanted to know. She was asking me about my experience at the Miss World, she wanted to be prepared, she was asking so many questions, and that was were the friendship started from. She is an easy person; I think that is part of what helped the relationship continue till now.
But what is your relationship with other beauty queens?
I’m still friends with Munachi Abii, with Omowunmi Akinnifesi. They are the only other two that I keep in touch with because they are still a little bit close to 2000, so from 2007, have not been in touch with anyone. With Omowunmi, I was actually a judge at that Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, which was why. And afterwards we met somewhere and we started talking, and that is why we are still friends. And Munachi, I met her at one of these occasions, and we hit it off. So those are the only 2 queens I m friend with.
During your reign, you had this project for Leprosy patient and you also had a foundation in that respect, how far did you go with it?
Then it was just like a dream and it was just starting off, so I called “The George Kerry Leprosy Foundation”, that was what my dream was, that was what I wanted to do. I didn’t register it then, but that was what I was projecting in my mind. And what I was trying to do was just to create awareness, it was more of an awareness campaign, for the plight of lepers, we didn’t actually do any fund raising, we didn’t do any direct contact with Leprosy victims. It was just raising awareness; we traveled to Delta State, Benin, to increase their awareness among philanthropic individuals, and to do something about it. It was kind of preparing me for something I’m going to do later in life. And of course, every dream, every vision metamorphosis over years. So right now, I have “The George Kerry Life Foundation”, which I founded in the memory of my dad, and we do a lot of awareness and campaign. We concentrate in 4 areas, which is disease, disability, illiteracy and poverty, and what we try and do is to touch all these areas every way we can, try and keep awareness on health hazards and problems, and also raise funds in alleviating poverty, helping illiteracy alleviation in the country. So we have so many programmes, the vision is really large and I just feel I just started doing something now.
But now, you seem to do a lot on cervical cancer, what informs that?
It was after NYSC, I went to work for a programme, the called themselves National Cervical Prevention Programme, that is what they were called at the time. I went to work with them, I was the director of communication for the programme, so that really informed me on the problem of cervical cancer in Nigeria, a lot of women weren’t screening, of course, I knew that already, but I wasn’t aware of the statistics and ways you can reach these women. So that just gave me all the training I needed, to go on and do something else. So when I left the company, I continued, with the Cervical Cancer Awareness, and its so easy for me to relate with women, and when they realize this was a former beauty queen, their ears are like wide open and everything I say they hang on to it. And it’s really working for cervical cancer awareness.
Do you have any relation that has died to this killer disease, since you are so passionate about it?
No, I haven’t lost any one to cervical cancer or breast cancer, its just came from that experience I had with National Cervical Prevention Programme. And of course because George Kerry Life already had a disease alleviation or control programme embedded in it, it just fit in.
So do you have your own clinic where you do all these things or you work for someone?
No, under George Kerry Life Foundation, we run a mobile clinic, meaning, we can be anywhere, we can set up cervical awareness screening in any community anywhere in Nigeria or in the world. And we also have an office where we invite women to come for their screening and treatment.
Where do you get money to facilitate all these activities?
We get donation, we have some individuals. We are working on getting some international grants; because that is the only way you can make a bigger impact. We are looking forward to working with some international NGOs as well, but recently we have been getting a lot of donation from anonymous people, they don’t event want to be known. They just heard about the programme and trying to support us. So it’s been good.
So what are the challenges you face on a regular basis?
That of funding is one because we can never have too much fund, the awareness we need to create and the people we need to reach are like so many. And secondly, the bottle neck of the corporate organization and governmental organization. There are so many people you have to pass through before your letter get to the person who is going to treat it, and sometimes it get lost in transit, and sometimes some people don’t think it is important. That is another huge challenge. But with the women, we are not having any challenge, once I reach the women and I’m speaking to them, there is hardly anyone in the crowd that will not want to be screened unless of course they are not able to have it at that time, they are pregnant, on their menstrual cycle, but usually when I speak, they are always willing. So mostly funding is one of our huge challenges.
So what are your goals and aspiration for the nearest future?
I visualize every Nigerian woman, city, urban, rural, know about Cervical Cancer, and have the opportunity to screen once a year. Hopefully in the nearest future, there will be a George Kerry Life Foundation, or a George Kerry Life affiliated body in every state, able to screen women free of charge or at an highly subsidized rate, and able to save all these women from dieing because Cervical cancer is needless, that are not suppose to happen and its totally preventable. That is our vision. Apart from that, we run disability programme, an anti stroke campaign, so George Kerry Life is so much bigger than just cervical cancer. We want to alleviate poverty; we want to help brilliant students who are in school to be able to push them forward into University. So hopefully, in another 10-20 years, we will be able to achieve that.
I thought you would have mentioned marriage too as your future plans
(Laughs) Oh, the question must always come out, no problem. Let me just say on marriage, that it’s going to happen really soon. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed
But according to what I gathered you are in a very serious relationship and will be getting married soon
It’s false; whatever that was I don’t know. I am in a relationship, that’s all I can say for now.
So who is he? Is he also a Doctor?
He is not a Doctor, but I will rather not talk about that. It’s still private, private me. Thank you very much (Laughs)
What are the qualities you like about him?
He is very accepting, he is open minded, few Nigerian men are. Those are the things that really captured my mind. And I think he knows it. And usually once I m engaged like that, my mind is engaged. It’s pretty difficult to shake it off
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