Where I’ve Nursed

Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia 1990-1994. Royal Commission Hospital, Yanbu 1995-1996. No matter how efficient the briefing in London, it did little to prepare me for the reality that was…

Alice Springs, 1972-1976. Head nurse of ER and the Out Patient department at Alice Springs General Hospital. In those days, gatherings of First Nation Australians  lived on settlements…

Cairo, 1981-1983. My first Middle East experience was like a magic carpet ride through a sensory overload of colours, smells, sights and sounds of a culture so different…

Cassiar, June 1966 – July 1967. Huddled comfortably at the base of the spectacular Cassiar mountains, the small hospital delivered a full range of health care and surveillance…

Eskimo Point, Sept 1977 – April 1978. On June 1st 1989 this Arctic settlement was renamed Arviat. This Inuktituk name means ‘place of the bow headed whale’ referring…

Kuwait, 1996-1998. Tired of hospital administration, I longed to get back to working at a practical level with children. So it was that I taught at a school…

Kon Tum, 1969-1970. The Minh Quy hospital there was founded in 1959 by Dr Patricia Smith. Her concern for the Montagnard hill tribesmen inhabiting the area, grew following…

Our childhood home in the village of Pentrefelin. Soon after the year of my birth 1940, my mother and I were evacuated into the safety of rural Snowdonia.…

Qui Nhon, October 1967 – December 1968. Joining Save the Children in October 1967 catapulted me into what became my first exposure to the random brutality of  armed…

10 months, 1977-78. Crewing a 50ft Ketch called Fantasy. Learning to harness the wind, read charts and hear dolphins chattering in the phosphorescent wake of a sail boat…