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 1990s Saudi…

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 surrounding a…

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 from my…

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 to the…

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 to the…

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 for children…

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 a year…

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. So, it…

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 conflict. Nothing…

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 had long…