29/08/2026
Feeling nostalgic, proud and blessed 🙏 💪🏼 🧬
This is one of my favourite work related mementos. I was given this as a new staff member of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Camperdown when I started in my first role as a Genetic Counsellor in 1992.
I was so excited to be a part of such a great team in a profession which was just being established and defined in the Australian health system.
By 1996, the hospital had been decommissioned, and we moved to what was known as the New Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
Over the next few years, which added up to around 10 years in that role, I met so many incredible individuals, families and colleagues. I was also able to complete my training and Fellowship with The Human Genetics Society of Australasia.
I keep this mug in my workspace at home and every time I look at it, I remember how many things change overtime, and how many things stay the same.
I still love the job I do, I’m very lucky in that way. I’m still able to interact with some incredible people, as both clients and colleagues.
What I also love is that my mug has the old logo of the hospital, which was a little girl carrying the bandaged bear.
The bandaged bear then became the logo of the new hospital and remains as a symbol of how the health of children and young people is so precious.
The New Children’s Hospital at Westmead is not so new anymore - it was opened the same year I had my first baby and she’s now 30 🫣
It is now a part of a larger network which combines it with the Prince of Wales Children’s Hospital at Randwick and a number of other incredibly vital services to support children and their carers 🧸🏥💜
