A monumental medical move

From a young age, I knew I wanted to help people by working in health. I thought about being a dentist; my father is a dentist so I knew a lot about that career path. But then medicine started to appeal to me more.

I applied to study medicine everywhere – the UK, Australia, as well as Canada. I was offered a position at James Cook University so I did a bit of research and realised Australia and Canada share a lot of similarities in terms of lifestyle and liveability, more so than the UK.

I'm from Alberta, which is a landlocked state province in the middle of Canada. We have beautiful lakes, but we don't see the ocean, so that was another drawcard for Townsville. In the end I decided to take the guaranteed offer in Australia rather than wait and hope to be offered a spot in Canada. My wife was supportive of the move as she was studying a Master's degree at the time. She’s since finished her Master's and is completing a PhD at JCU. It has worked out really well for both of us.

I have been very impressed with the way the degree is structured. If I was to compare it to a medicine degree in Canada, students don’t get any clinical or placement experience until their third or fourth year, but at JCU placements started pretty much straight away.

First year is a bit more relaxed, easing us into the course, but the workload gets more intense in the second year. The content gets heavier, the questions more difficult and it builds from there each year.

In my first year, I did a three day placement at a diabetic clinic. I’m now in my third year and I’ve recently completed a month-long rural placement in Ayr, working mainly in the emergency department, which was challenging and really interesting. I’m super excited for years four, five and six which are mostly clinical placements. My next one will be at the Townsville Hospital’s Emergency Department which is where all the major emergency presentations for the whole region present.

In terms of the type of medicine I’d like to pursue in the future, I have enjoyed emergency medicine and paediatrics. I was lucky enough to do my paediatric rotation with well-known local paediatrician Dr William Frischman just before he retired – I learned so much from him.

My wife and I are open-minded about our future options. If the right opportunities present for us, we are open to staying in Australia and likewise, we are open to returning to Canada.

Yes, my wife and I both miss home. We try to visit once a year, typically at Christmas time and our families have visited us here as well. We do a lot of FaceTiming, which makes it a bit easier, but both my wife and I were ready to forge our own path when we moved over here.

We enjoy our life in Townsville, we’ve made some great friends and enjoy getting outdoors. We love  walking along the Strand, and although we are not big nightclub people, we enjoy the variety and quality of restaurants and cafes in town.

I play ice hockey which you can do in Townsville! I’ve played hockey since I was 10-years-old, so it's been a big part of my life. When I found out there was an ice rink here, I got in touch with the business and asked if I could get involved by coaching kids in the rink. Now I coach young ice skaters every Thursday night and we play ice hockey afterwards. It's a lot of fun and at the end of the day that’s what it is all about – having fun on the ice.