Derek Mackesy was born and raised in Huntsville. He chose medicine as his vocation and achieved his MD degree from Queen’s University in 1973, later deciding to specialize in sports medicine. Over the years Dr. Mackesy has travelled the world in his medical capacity with the Huntsville Oldtimers hockey team, the Pan Am games in Mexico in 1975, and the Paralympic games in 1976. He has been the team physician for Canadian national and Canadian Olympic teams. In 1982 Mackesy became the president of the Canadian Academy of Sports Medicine in Ottawa and was named the chief medical officer for the Canadian Olympic hockey team from 1985 to 1992. He has participated in six Olympic and Paralympic games as team physician. Mackesy has also acted at team physician for the Paralympics, the Canada Winter Games, the Spengler Cups, World Cup Soccer, the World University Games, Ontario Winter Games and on and on. In 2010 he was awarded a lifetime membership award by the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine and was inducted into the Queens University Athletic Hall of Fame the very same year. Mackesy opened his own sports medicine practice in Barrie, known as Active Health Sports Medicine and he continues to practice there today.