Taking Time for Her Community
Bronnie Taylor, Monaro
The privilege of being allowed into the lives of patients and their families at an incredibly difficult time is an honour which I will never forget.
Before I was a politician, I was a nurse caring for people affected by cancer. I spent eight years as a specialist in palliative care, both in the city and the Monaro.
The privilege of being allowed into the lives of patients and their families at an incredibly difficult time is an honour which I will never forget.
Working in the regions, it became glaringly obvious that patients in the country didn’t have the health services that they needed or should have had. Country people are so stoic, incredibly so, and what was really distressing was that they were choosing surgeries and treatments that were going to give them worse outcomes because they didn’t want to be so far from home.
So, with the help of my peers, I set about taking on the health service to get a local oncology clinic. This meant extensive fundraising – including Cooma’s very own version of Dancing With the Stars – but the day we opened the doors was an incredibly proud one for our community. For me, this encapsulates the enormous generosity of spirit that personifies rural New South Wales.
One thing that this time really taught me is that you have to stand up for what’s right and you have to try and make things better for people who don’t feel they have the voice or the confidence to speak up. Together, we are stronger.
*Bronnie Taylor was the NSW Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Women.
