Di Gillies
Interplast
Interplast sends teams of volunteer plastic and reconstructive surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and allied health professionals to provide life-changing surgery and medical training in 17 countries across the Asia Pacific region.
They do this in partnership with local organisations, including hospitals, universities and local NGOs. Their mission is to ‘repair bodies and rebuild lives’ and do this through providing surgical services to those who could not otherwise afford or access these, and by building the capacity of local medical systems through our training and mentoring programs.
In the 1960s, one man believed plastic surgery could transform the world. One patient at a time…
That man, Dr Donald R Laub of Stanford University, pioneered the idea that reconstructive plastic surgery could rehabilitate, reintegrate and transform lives. In 1969, his vision led to the creation of Interplast (USA), now Resurge International. Thousands of medical volunteers extended a helping hand by travelling overseas and assisting those in need. Mr Leo Rozner, an Australian plastic surgeon, was one of those volunteers.
Returning to Melbourne from South America, Mr Rozner’s promotion of the Interplast experience to the Rotary Club of Cheltenham intrigued Dr Gerald Duff, a general practitioner and Rotarian who instigated discussion regarding transplanting the Interplast concept in Australia with Rotary District 980 (now 9800). Back and forth, the conversational tennis match between Doug Mills and Keith Walter of 980, Interplast in the United States of America and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, through Professor Donald Marshall, the then Chairman of the Plastic and Reconstructive Division, eventuated in the birth of Interplast Australia in 1983. Dubbed a joint project between Rotary District 980 and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Interplast Australia was established to provide voluntary medical teams to carry out plastic and reconstructive surgery in developing countries. Di is Interplast’s Rotarian Coordinator.
For further information, see https://www.interplast.org.au/