Immortalized in name, Boca Grande doctor gets a heartfelt surprise

BY OLIVIA CAMERON – The Englewood Community Care Clinic introduced their new sign for the Health Center to update their location and pay tribute to a special couple on Boca Grande.
On January 10 of this year, the Care Clinic held their annual open house, this time to surprise its initiators.
Dr. Raymond James of the Boca Grande Health Clinic and his wife, Kathy, are now a part of the Care Clinic’s sign for visitors to see once they walk through the doors. The logo now appears as “The Ray and Kathy James Englewood Community Care Clinic.”
Dr. James served the community for two decades through Port Charlotte’s Fawcett Memorial Hospital and the Englewood Community Hospital.
In 2011, Dr. James created the Care Clinic alongside founders Dr. Asperilla and Dr. Klein. The Care Clinic, open two days a week, is a nonprofit health service with no cost to patients ages 18 to 64 years old. The clinic steers away from limitations to give those who are uninsured the support they need.
But when Kathy developed invasive breast cancer in 2017, Dr. James felt there should be a change of pace with his medical practice. “I’m giving to the community and to medicine, but what about my wife?”
By 2018, Dr. James became a physician at the Boca Grande Health Clinic. With Kathy utilizing immunotherapy to keep her health problem at bay, Dr. James believes they made the right choice to pace themselves.
“Here you also have time to talk to the patients and provide follow-up care,” said Dr. James. Working on the Island even allows him to devote his attention to those he may know from previous medical care.
When Dr. James and his wife were invited to the Care Clinic open house this year, they weren’t expecting anything besides the ordinary. “They announced the new name, and we were caught completely off guard,” he said. “It was quite an honor and way cool to sort of be immortalized.”
Beth Harrison, secretary and executive director of the Englewood Community Care Clinic, said this logo is a great homage paid to Ray and Kathy.
“We’ve been in business for nine years and wanted to update our clinic,” she said. “We wanted to honor Ray and Kathy because it was their dream.”
The clinic acknowledged the pair for developing a treatment facility dedicated to those who simply can’t afford it.
“We’ve seen over 30,000 patients in the area,” Harrison noted, continuing to provide for the people of Southwest Florida and carry on the dream.
“We didn’t start the clinic to have our names on it,” Dr. James averred. However, dedication to the medical community deserves to be recognized.