The losses that shaped a mission.
I lost two sisters and my father from the lack of access to healthcare. I built DrsOnCalls so no family has to lose someone they love because a doctor was too far away or too expensive.
Mary Gorder didn't set out to build a healthcare company. Healthcare came looking for her — over and over, in the most painful ways imaginable.
Mary's two sisters were the first to be taken. One died at just six months old, from heart failure her family couldn't afford to treat.
Another lost her life to cancer — and to this day, Mary doesn't even know what type. There was no doctor. No diagnosis. No money.
Then in 2001, Mary lost her father. He suffered from severe hypertension for years, but without access to care, he relied on folk remedies instead of medication.
He died from a stroke — a treatable condition that became fatal because healthcare was simply out of reach.
For most people, that much loss would break them. For Mary, it built her resolve.
From grief to purpose.
Mary married a doctor. Through him, she saw the healthcare system from the inside — and she saw a different kind of suffering. Her husband worked impossibly long hours. Patients needed him. Hospitals needed him. The system was relentless.
When Mary became a widow and a single mother of four young children, she made a decision that would change everything: she would build a business that solved both problems at once.
One that gave families access to real doctors. And one that gave doctors a better way to practice medicine — from home, with more time for their families, while still saving lives.
That dream became DrsOnCalls.
