FOR me, as for other doctors working to find a cure for AIDS, it is a race against the clock. My team regularly clocks in at 6 in the morning and works past midnight. Sometimes we are so exhausted that we feel as if we have been working around the clock.

But what wears me down more than long working hours is the government whose refusal to give liberal grants for the research puts the clock back fifty years. If only there was more money to go around, it would make all the difference to the timeframe in which we can reasonably hope to find a cure. Unfortunately, all the applications I have written to government agencies have made no difference to its attitude to the problem. But I have always tried to make the best of whatever I have at my disposal.

In the course of completing this project, I have run into so many difficulties that I have often wanted to hang up my coat. But the thought of being able to help all those patients who come to us hoping against hope for a cure, keeps me going. I understand that there is a world of difference between promising a cure and actually finding one, but sometimes just the hope of getting better can make difference to a patient’s will to live.

I don’t know if I am destined to see my efforts bear fruit in my lifetime, all I can do is hope for the best. And in the meanwhile I will do the best I can with the time and resources I have.

Race/work against the clock: to work quickly in order to finish something before a particular time

Clock in: to record on a special the card the time you arrive at or begin work

Around the clock: all day and all night without stopping

Put the clock back: to go back to the way things were done before, rather than trying out new ideas or methods

Go around: to be enough for everyone to have some

Make all the difference, make a (big) difference: to have an important effect on a thing or a situation

Make no difference: to have no effect at all on a situation

Make the best of something: to accept an unsatisfactory situation and do whatever you can to make it better

Run into difficulties: have trouble

Hang up your badge/gear etc: to stop doing a job or an activity after a long time

Hoping against hope: hoping for something one knows is unlikely to happen

Keep someone going: to give someone the necessary hope or energy they need to continue living or doing something

A world of difference: a very large difference between two things

Bear fruit: if a plan, decision etc bears fruit, it is successful, especially after a long time

Hope for the best: to hope that a bad or a difficult situation will end in a way that is good

Do the best you can; do your best: try as hard as you can to do something

‘A1’ is used to mean ‘in excellent or first-class condition’. This term has been borrowed from the Register of Shipping maintained by Lloyd’s of London, which was an insurance market, from the 18^th century onwards. The quality of a ship’s hull is denoted by a letter and that of its equipment by a number. ‘A1’, therefore, indicates the best quality in all respects. It is now used to describe anything that is in excellent condition.

(Reference: Longman Advanced American Dictionary)