[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Tim O’Shea edited.jpg” caption=”Tim O’Shea. Photo courtesy Faculty of Health Sciences.”]A McMaster medical resident is spearheading Hamilton's 2006 Give a Day fundraising initiative to raise funds to help fight AIDS.

Tim O'Shea, a fifth-year infectious diseases resident, hopes the fundraising initiative will be so successful that it sends a strong statement to political leaders that more needs to be done to eliminate the devastating disease.

The two-year-old program, launched with a press conference today in Toronto, encourages participants to give an amount comparable to one day's wages to help fight AIDS. World AIDS Day is on Dec. 1.

The initiative was born in 2004 at Markham Stouffville Hospital, when 50 doctors at the hospital donated their income for one day to the Stephen Lewis Foundation in response to a challenge put forth by Dr. Jane Philpott. More than $33,000 was raised.

Last year, eight hospitals in Ontario ran a similar campaign, contributing more than $100,000 towards eradicating the disease.

O'Shea was in Kenya in 2002 when he first had the opportunity to listen to Stephen Lewis speaking about the crisis in Africa.

“It was inspiring,” said O'Shea. “I feel very strongly that AIDS is a public health disaster that's completely preventable.”

O'Shea says that so far this year 11 hospitals have come on board, as well as some school boards, a couple of law firms, a construction company and even some companies in Chicago.

“Dr. Paul O'Byrne, chair of the Department of Medicine, has been very supportive of this effort,” he said. Last year, the Department of Medicine raised $10,000 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation and O'Shea hopes that this year, the whole university campus will participate and double that amount.

For more information about the Give a Day initiative, or the two recommended recipient charities, the Stephen Lewis Foundation and Dignitas International, please visit “http://www.giveaday.ca/” target=”_new”>www.giveaday.ca.