Jovial, always smiling and with a comforting bedside manner, Dr Darren Green is the charismatic medical mind supporting many of South Africa’s biggest sporting events, including the Cape Town Cycle Tour and the Absa Cape Epic.

As the Event Chief Medical Officer, his responsibilities lie primarily in ensuring the health and medical safety of the riders, caring for patients, and establishing a medical strategy to cope with anything from heat stroke to broken bones.

Green is passionate about both medicine and sport. As a former provincial under-23 rugby player at Maties, he spent most of his early university career chasing the ball rather than chasing subject credits. But after injuring his shoulder, he decided to retire from rugby and focus on his medical career.

After four years of postgraduate training in neurology and a stint in emergency medicine, Green eventually turned to the study of sport and exercise science, and has happily indulged both passions ever since.

Green is married, with two boys, and lives in Cape Town’s northern suburbs.

I take my coffee as a flat white.

I’d love to go for a ride with my wife, in the car! Nah, I’m teasing. I love going for a ride on the mountain with my son when he’s jogging. But I hate it when he turns up steep hills!

The secret to happiness is finding inner contentment. It’s about spending time with people I trust and who help me become a better version of myself.

My greatest exhilaration is when you have that big high you get at the end of a big day when you’ve had to push through beyond what you think is possible. That sense of significance pumps me up.

I fear there will be a time and a place in my life when I won’t be able to eat a lot of chillies. I’m a hot food addict, and I grew up in Durban. Seriously, though… I fear ageing. I hope I can still keep doing the things I love doing for as long as possible.

A moment of pure clarity was when my four-year-old son was asked at school who the best footballer in the world was. He said it was his dad. It made me realise how important my responsibility is as a father. Children are absolute mirrors in our lives.

I am passionate about unleashing the capacity in people. If you ask me what my sole life purpose is, it’s about helping people find that thing that makes them come alive. 

When I wake up I ask who’s making the coffee!

I rage against unfairness. I hate seeing people being treated unfairly. I also hate it when people speak ‘at’ others instead of ‘to’ them, and remove someone else’s individual voice. I like people to respect each other.

I wish I could ride the Epic. But I know what the cost is – like, riding 15 to 20 hours a week. So maybe I need to refocus, and do something like Wines2Whales one day. And my other great wish is to see my kids find their niche in life, and live the same values I have.

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