Health & Wellbeing

The word cancer still strikes terror in the hearts of most of us but it's hoped continuing research will help reduce the fear associated with a diagnosis. Millions of dollars spent on breast cancer research have significantly improved survival rates and a diagnosis may no longer be something to dread. Julie (surname withheld on request) was living her dream life...

Cooma's Dr Hamish Steiner has been named 2021 Rural Doctor of the Year by the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) after stepping in to help save the only general practice in the town of Bombala, approximately an hour away. "There's lots of people who probably deserve it as much or more than me, but I got nominated and managed...

Moruya midwife Clare Immens has spent her career in the medical industry, volunteering as a midwife in developing nations. While she primarily works on the NSW South Coast, Clare's career has taken her around the world, from Mongolia to Ethiopia and Vanuatu to name a few. Volunteering as a midwife in developing nations has shown Clare first-hand the poor conditions...

It's hardly surprising Jill Doyle can't remember not being on a horse. When your grandfather was in the 12th Light Horse Brigade and a Gallipoli veteran, chances are it's in your blood. One of her first memories is competing in the led class at the Parkes Show at age four and receiving a ribbon. It was nothing to get too...

Despite being on the verge of submitting a Development Application for the new $1.5 million Respite Centre in Queanbeyan, organising charity "Respite Care for Queanbeyan" is yet to be informed whether they will receive annual funding of $1 million which has been estimated as the ongoing operational cost of the facility. With the planning process for the building all but...

Eurobodalla doctor Michael Holland has told the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into rural health that a dangerous shortage of paediatric and maternity services, and a system relying on overstretched and exhausted doctors, poses a risk of neonatal fatalities in the region. The senior clinician and Eurobodalla's only obstetrician addressed the inquiry yesterday (Wednesday 6 October), revealing a "deterioration in the provision of...

When the bushfires struck, award-winning Merimbula pharmacist Linda Badewitz-Dodd provided emergency support to the town while her own home was under threat. She and Canberra intern pharmacist Erin Cooper have been announced as winners in the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) Viatris Excellence Awards 2021. Ms Badewitz-Dodd took out the prestigious Pharmacist of the Year Award while Ms Cooper won the Intern Pharmacist of...

From 8:30 am until 10 pm, seven days a week, contact tracers are interviewing people diagnosed with COVID-19 to determine when they were likely to be infectious and where they were during that period of time.  Based in Albury, Goulburn and remotely across southern NSW, the contact tracing team is under pressure to contact each case within 24 hours of...

The Hilltops cluster of COVID-19 continues to spread, with three new cases recorded in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District to 8 pm last night. They are two household contacts - a man in his 40s and a woman in her 70s - and a man in his 50s. The two men are isolating in their respective homes under the care...

A popular Far South Coast fitness and wellbeing event will not go ahead in October, but don't despair as it has not been cancelled - merely rescheduled to later in the year. ReBoot in Bermagui will be held on 4 and 5 December 2021 so participants can hopefully launch themselves out of COVID-19 lockdown blues and into summer. Committee spokesperson...

Crookwell is a small town in the NSW Southern Tablelands - population 2641. Goulburn is a 30-minute drive away and Canberra is 90 minutes away. So for many outlying farming communities, the small town’s hospital is often the first port of call in an emergency. It’s also a place of familiarity for residents, with doctors and nurses doubling as aunties,...

Wagga Wagga's Wael Fahmy had a high-flying career in banking before moving from Egypt to Australia, but it came with one significant drawback. He worked for Barclays in Cairo’s central business district, leading performance improvement and then strategy and business development. While he enjoyed living in the city that never sleeps, some of Cairo’s most violent demonstrations occurred at the foot...

Three new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in southern NSW, all of them centred around the Queanbeyan area. Two new cases were reported in the Southern NSW Local Health District to 8 pm last night, bringing the total cases in the LHD to 24 since the start of the current outbreak in June. Both of the new cases are...