I was born in Brisbane in 1950 and went to Ithaca Creek and Kelvin Grove primary schools.
My folks moved to Casino NSW in the early 1960’s and so I went to Casino high school and then on to University of NSW where I graduated from medicine in 1975 with honours.
My Dad was in the funeral business which meant for a few humorous happenings when I came back from Sydney to practice medicine in the home town [such as walking into the surgery waiting room with a tape measure draped around my neck].
From 1979 to 1981 I worked in the UK in hospitals in Yorkshire and in London.
My oldest son Kit was born in London [1980] and as a family we moved back to Australia and eventually settled on the Gold Coast where I went into GP in 1981. My youngest son Ben was born in Pindara hospital in 1982.
I developed a special interest in alcohol and other addictions and treated many patients over a period of about 20 years.
During this time I was foundation medical officer of the Gold Coast Hospital Alcohol and Drug Unit, foundation medical officer of the Gold Coast Alcohol Recovery Project [ ‘Goldbridge’], foundation medical officer of Fairhaven Salvation Army Alcohol and Drug Recovery Unit and Chairman of the Gold Coast Hospital Alcohol and Drug Service Committee. [The Gold Coast Hospital detoxification unit was the 3rd busiest unit in QLD after RBH and PAH Brisbane].
Between 1994 and 2000 I served as a member of the Meeanjin Aboriginal Treatment Association Expert Advisory committee, Currumbin Private Hospital Medical Advisory board and was Chairman of the Allamanda hospital post graduate education programme committee.
I also served as medical officer to Rosies Youth mission Gold Coast, as honorary medical officer to TSS cadets and as a board member of Gold Coast Life Line.
In 1986 I became foundation President of the Gold Coast GP Association, [now the Gold Coast Division of GP]. This Association was a means of meeting colleagues and enjoying fellowship together. We had a number of invited entertaining speakers including Dr Geoffrey Edelstein and cricketer Greg Chappell.
Around the early 1990’s I became a foundation member and secretary for the Gold Coast Care for Children Fund Committee. [This committee was associated with the Gold Coast Local Medical Association]. Over about 10 years we raised money for ‘Guide Dogs’, ‘Sailability’, ‘Riding for the disabled’ and individual children with disabilities as well as other organizations helping children. Our method was to raise funds from the local medical fraternity through sponsoring our Gold Coast marathon runs. Committee members included Dr’s, Denis O’Brien, Darrell Price, Steve Shepherd and Kader Mohamed. Through Dr Price’s efforts we believe our committee played a large part in encouraging the government to fund haemophillus influenza (HIB) vaccination for children.]
In 1992 I was awarded ‘GP of the Year’ by the medical magazine ‘Australian Doctor’.
IN 1995 I was invited to become a member of the National Nicotine Replacement Therapy Expert Panel. During this time I wrote and published a book for GPs to assist with their patients giving up tobacco smoking. I also travelled widely throughout Australia talking to groups of GPs about smoking cessation.
In 1994 I was awarded the Gold Coast Runners Club Marathon Achievement Award. This was a result of running three marathons with good times during that year. During this time I also co-authored in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Sport two papers [published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine] on blood changes in ultra-distance runners participating in a 1600 km race.
In 1998 I was invited to become a Class A [non-alcoholic] Trustee of Alcoholics Anonymous Australia. Trustees serve as custodians of AA traditions and interpret policies affecting the fellowship as a whole.
In 2000 I was one of those honoured to carry the Olympic torch on the Gold Coast.
In 2001 I went through a marriage break up and left Australia to work in and out of Ireland.
The work was essentially ‘out of hours’ emergency medicine. I had a car equipped with resuscitation equipment and a driver with local knowledge as getting, finding and following directions in Ireland is extremely difficult. [e.g.’You know the bridge that was painted green? Well it’s not there anymore’]. I was intrigued by the politics in the Republic. One of my drivers was pro – IRA and the next night the other driver was anti- IRA. So I had some interesting conversations.[it was an unwritten law that the drivers never discussed politics with one another so that they remain on amicable terms]. However the Irish are truly hospitable and lovely people. At this time I picked up a mandolin and one of my drivers, an expert in Irish music taught me how to play it. The mandolin has been a great source of solace and pleasure to me since this time.
I travelled a lot while working out of Ireland including working stints on the QM2 and QE2. I also worked as a ship’s doctor for other cruise lines including Disney, Fred Olsen and Crystal lines. I had many a ‘brush with fame’ including meeting John Cleese, Geoffrey Archer, Hank Aaron [the ‘Don Bradman’ of American baseball] and Happy Rockefeller the wife of Nelson Rockefeller [former VP of the USA].
In Ireland I studied tropical medicine and gained a scholarship to study for the ‘International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance’ at Fordham University of New York. [Just up the road from Trump tower!!]. I then went on to do locums in Moscow and then Freeport in West New Guinea.[This is near the one of three remaining mountain glaciers close to the equator]. I saw many cases of cerebral malaria, HIV and TB in New Guinea.
In 2008 I returned to Australia and accepted my good friend Denis O’Brien’s offer to join him in a skin cancer centre he had established at Mermaid Beach.
Since this time I studied for and was awarded a Fellowship of the Skin Cancer College of Australasia. I am now an examiner for the College of candidates for the Fellowship.
The College is for primary medical practitioners and teaches essentially three disciplines. These are dermatology, dermoscopy [a method of examining the skin], and plastic surgery [in order to best close wounds created from the excision of skin cancers].
I have had a number of research articles published in the medical literature including ‘A novel treatment of non-melanoma skin cancer of the ear. V to Y full thickness graft’ and ‘A case study of application of black salve to a thin melanoma that subsequently progressed to metastatic melanoma.’ I have also co-authored a study on split skin grafting to the lower leg following cancer excision. Because of this research I am recognized as Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine, University of Queensland.
I find my work stimulating, fascinating and emotionally rewarding and I am eternally grateful for the opportunities that I have had as a medical practitioner. Now there is great excitement in the field of melanoma treatment with new drugs that boost the immune system in order to attack cancer and there is guarded optimism that some patients with metastatic melanoma will be cured. I will be attending a Melanoma conference in the Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital, New York, later this year where melanoma treatments first started over 100 years ago to hear the latest update in these new treatments.
I live in the Phoenician, Broadbeach with my son who is a very creative editor and producer of film music and plays.
My other son Ben is a neuroscientist in the USA. He gained his PhD at the University of QLD and moved to the USA about 3 years ago. His wife, Angie who is a native of Portland Oregon is in early labour and I am waiting for news of my first grandchild. [I can’t think of a better way to finish this epistle!!]
Since receiving this profile from Graham he now has a beautiful Granddaughter. Editor
