David Heaney, one of our most valuable and closest colleagues, has during this summer suddenly passed away. On behalf of the entire project partnership of Recruit and Retain – Making it Work, we have decided to honour David on this site.

I have known David for more than 15 years, from my early days when I was working as Head of Secretariat for the Interreg programme covering the Northern Periphery and Arctic area (NPA). His importance for the programme’s collaboration, especially related to remote and rural health, cannot be underestimated. David was the first person that Interreg-NPA called to consult, if a project was about to be developed related to remote and rural health. He always gave an honest opinion and helped to tailor proposals to improve their possible impact. David was highly regarded, his professionality along with his warm and kind personality made him appreciated and respected. It was for these reasons, why we all wanted him to take part in project implementation. 

David has been an essential and a very central person to the success of Interreg programmes connected to Northern Periphery and Arctic that he was involved with, and certainly for our project. David created the Scottish partnership consortium for this project, Recruit and Retain – Making it Work. A project partnership which we all have mutually benefitted from, both during the project and now also afterwards. 

We have decided to dedicate the legacy achieved of our collaboration to Dr. David Heaney.

David will be missed, especially by his family and close friends, but also by us who were his collegial friends.

Please find David Heaney’s obituary here for more information about his career and his stunning personality, published in the journal Rural and Remote Health.

Niclas Forsling – Project Manager
Centre for Rural Medicine in Storuman, Sweden.
Lead partner coordinator for Recruit and Retain – Making it Work