schools. In the early 1980’s this had been changed to allow anyone aged 17-19 in full-time education to apply. My mother passed the advert on to me, and I was absolutely determined to go. An application was lodged and I had to go through a series of interviews and raise over $2000 (a huge amount in 1983) to be eligible. I somehow managed to secure a place on the expedition and spent the 6-week summer holiday between years 11 and 12 cross-country skiing and camping on the ice caps of eastern Greenland, kayaking in iceberg ladened fjords and studying the life cycle of the arctic moss campion plant as part of the scientific phase of the expedition. Shortly after returning from this life changing adventure, I had an interview to study medicine at Nottingham University. I was ill-prepared and was convinced my interview would be a complete disaster. Luckily the moment I sat down, one of the members of the interview panel said, “tell us about your recent trip to Greenland” and that’s all I was asked about for the entire 30-minute interview. I was offered a place, which I joyfully accepted. I always knew I wanted to do surgery, but I also knew that surgery was considered very competitive and not that female friendly. I therefore spent the 5 years at medical school trying to find anything other than surgery to fall in love with, but in the end, it was only surgery that really interested me. I chose urology after spending 6 months as a urology SHO as part of my general surgical training in Newcastle Upon Tyne in the UK. Unlike many of the general surgical consultants I had worked with, the urologists were on the whole a very friendly and welcoming bunch, enthusiastic teachers and were much less likely to throw something at you in theatre compared to other surgical specialties if you did something daft. They were and still are my favourite medical people. You were the first female urologist in New South Wales. What does that milestone mean to you? It was a complete privilege to have been the first female urologist in NSW. I completed my specialist urology training in the UK in early 2002 and moved to Sydney that year. I had trained with 2 fabulous female urology consultants in the UK and had met the unique and inspiring urology consultant Christine Evans at many UK urology meetings. Christine was generally recognised as the first specifically trained female consultant urologist in the UK. She had a practical no nonsense approach to life and urology, and she smoked cigars at the urology meetings. I thought she was brilliant. I was very surprised to find there were no female urologists at all in NSW in 2002. Thankfully things have moved forward considerably with many more excellent and inspiring women now in urology. To be the first in anything is very special and to have been the first female urologist in NSW still means a lot to me. If you weren’t a urologist, what career do you think you would have pursued? Something in art, design or photography. I have always loved drawing and painting and after each of my registrar posts I gifted a cartoon of my time in the post to the urology team I had worked with. Many of which are still hanging in urology wards in the UK! I am still glad I chose medicine though as I can still pursue art and photography as hobbies. Outside the operating theatre, you’re a keen photographer. How did you discover photography, and what do you enjoy most about it? I have always enjoyed photography but was just a point and shoot photographer for many years. 10 years ago, I went on safari in South Africa and took a reasonably good but basic camera with me. I used it on automatic mode with autofocus and hoped for the best with my shots. Some came out really well and this inspired me to work out how to shoot using manual mode. All skills were then worked out by looking up tips and techniques on the internet. Instagram was relatively new back then and I started posting my shots online and built up a mini following.
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