Dr Mary Brooksbank AM, FRACS, FAChPM
Dr Mary Brooksbank graduated MBBS from the University of Melbourne in 1968.In 1974 she received FRACS in General Surgery having combined her surgical training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital with a year in the NHMRC Burns Unit at the Birmingham Accident Hospital.
In 1975 she was appointed to the University of Melbourne Department of Surgery where she helped set up the first Burns Unit at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. She was on the founding committee of the ANZ Burns Association.
When she moved to Adelaide to marry neurosurgeon, Brian Brophy, there was a career pause while they travelled overseas for Brian to expand his surgical skills and Mary had their three children.
From 1984 -1989 Mary worked as Associate Assistant in the Burns Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, but in late 1989 Mary took a position in a new Palliative Care Unit which included the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Mary Potter Hospice at Calvary Hospital, as well as the surrounding community. In 1995 she became director of the service which also provided support to the north- west of SA, the Northern Territory and Broken Hill. She was also a Clinical Lecturer in the University of Adelaide Medical School.
Mary became an inaugural Fellow of the Chapter of Palliative Medicine in 2000 and was a co-author for the first editions of Therapeutic Guidelines Palliative Care (2001, 2004) as well as being involved in ANZSPM and FAChPM Curriculum development.
She retired from clinical practice at the end of 2008.From 2010-2016 she chaired Palliative Care SA, and since 2017 has chaired the Management Committee for GriefLink, a grief information website, grieflink.org.au.
In 2006 Mary was awarded South Australian of the Year – Health and received the Order of Australia in 2007.