IN JAMAICA (GREAT FOLLOW UP STORY): Georgia Lindsay is off to China Medical School! Overwhelming support from Observer readers sends grateful Hampton girl to medical school....Received donation from the mother of a Jamaican businessman who paid the $1 million. Additionally, I got half-a-million from the Office of the Prime Minister, and NCB gave us $400,000.

BY DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE Sunday Observer staff reporter husseyd@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, October 05, 2014 

GEORGE Lindsay, the Manchester father who was last week set on selling his house in order to help fund his daughter's dream of studying medicine in China, yesterday saw her off at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, thanks to Jamaica Observer readers, here and abroad, who were touched by his story.

Georgia Lindsay and her dad at airport in Jamaica

Easily, the largest donation he received was from the mother of a prominent Jamaican businessman who paid the $1 million required for the first year.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, met the family in Mandeville last Wednesday and paid the sum over to the university through their account.

"Oh, my God!" Lindsay said as he tried to find words to express his feelings. "It is tremendous! It is just tremendous! Her money has been paid to the bank and a lot of persons have been giving; the help is more than what I did even expect! One person went and paid a million dollars for her. I got half-a-million from the Office of the Prime Minister, and NCB gave us $400,000. People called me from America and sent what they could and Jamaicans have been contributing. So it is adding up to covering more than her first year, because we are well on our way to covering her third year."

In fact, the Observer readers have been so generous that Lindsay said he has postponed his plan to sell his family house.

"Right now I have put that plan on hold, because persons have been encouraging me not to sell, and even that businessman whose mother gave the million said I should not sell," Lindsay told the Sunday Observer.

His daughter, Georgia, who graduated from Hampton School this year with 12 CSEC subjects (10 at grade one and two at grade two), and eight CAPE units (four grades one, three twos and one three), had always wanted to become a medical doctor.

She was accepted to start a six-year course at Anhui Medical School in China, which begins in five days, but her parents were unable to come up with the $1 million.

Two Fridays ago, Lindsay told the Sunday Observer that he had already given his daughter "about $300,000", while her mother, who is living abroad, had contributed additional funds.

He explained that he initially started operating a grocery shop, but it was not profitable enough to fund his daughter's education, so he leased it and went into farming after being loaned two acres of land by a childhood friend living in New York.

Lindsay also tried his hand at butchering, and during the recent drought he planted melons, which thrive in dry conditions. He also planted tomatoes in-between seasons to make up the funds. After the melons were depleted Lindsay turned his hand at rearing 50 chickens, which he sold and handed that money over to his daughter. more