I was born in Dunedin into a large Catholic family, then brought up in in Gore and Blenheim. I returned to Dunedin in 1982 to attend university to pursue my wish to become a family doctor, which I had held for as long as I can remember.
I was fortunate to study in the days of subsidised Christmas vacation employment and nominal student fees so managed to support myself financially by working as a meat packer and living extremely frugally!
I graduated in 1986 then worked as a house surgeon for two years in a wide range of specialties before coming across the fields which really appealed to me, when I spent a year as a Family Medicine Registrar and nine months completing my Diploma of Obstetrics. I joined the Mornington Health Centre in 1991. After the years based in the hospital spent focussed, necessarily, on illness and intervention,
I appreciated the opportunity to work alongside people in a much more ongoing and personal way. I particularly relish the contact with families as they go through the most wonderful experience of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting, and feel extremely honoured at being chosen by about eighty women each year to lead their maternity care. I am married to Gordon who is a full-time father for our four gorgeous children- Harriet, Constance, Rufus and Toby.
I love spending my spare time with my family and enjoy children's movies, garden design, home decorating, shopping and skiing. |
