Doctor returns to Canberra to share life-saving stories

Posted on 24 April, 2025

Canberra-raised Professor Rose McGready left Australia more than 30 years ago armed simply with a passion to help women and children in need.

Now you can hear the inspiring story of how and why this doctor left a comfortable life in Australia to volunteer to help people she didn’t know along the border between Myanmar and Thailand – a part of the world she knew nothing about. She was drawn to help women and children who, through no fault of their own, were dying of malaria and other conditions.

Professor McGready will be speaking at Merici College, Canberra, where she completed her high school education, about this life-saving work.

For decades, Professor McGready has worked tirelessly, with the support of a small, dedicated band of volunteers and donations from supporters, to enhance the health and well-being of mothers and babies from marginalised communities.

Karen and Burmese communities have fled violence, human rights abuse and poverty in Myanmar to seek sanctuary in Thailand. However, even if they make it to the Thai side of the border as migrants, they still have almost no access to public health services, as they are not citizens. Pregnant women and babies are particularly vulnerable.

For the past three decades, Rose and her team have often been their only source of health care in rural areas, through a network of clinics focused on preventing infectious diseases and providing maternal and child health.

These clinics offer culturally appropriate, high-quality care, and have saved countless lives. But financial support is needed to keep this crucial care going, including to fund dedicated health care workers to assist women in labour and manage life-threatening complications, medication, equipment and logistic support and emergency hospital costs for patients who need higher-level care.

Not only does Rose and her team practice maternal health, they also train health workers on site and conduct life-saving research into the effects of malaria during pregnancy.

Her techniques to treat malaria have been so successful they are now being used by the World Health Organisation.

So what makes a woman leave a comfortable life in Australia’s capital city to help people she’s never met in one of the most dangerous areas in the region?

Rose explain her motivations and vast experience in conversation with Virginia Hausseger at Merici College on Thursday 8 May.