Born – some say, unfortunately – in Jan 1’st, 1944, 3.15 am.

Educated at many schools during the current lifetime. They were:

St Gregory’s, Queanbeyan (Kindy to 3’rd class)
Marist Brothers Randwick (3’rd and 4’th class)
Mount Carmel College, Charters Towers (4’th to 6’th class)
Waverley College – 1’st year to 5’th Year (L.C.)

University of Sydney – 1961 to 1965
Graduated in Pharmacy (B.Pharm) in 1966

While at Uni., was Editor of "Mortar" – the student’s magazine of the pharmacy faculty. (I used to write very funny articles – and they were the serious ones. I also wrote some poems – of the "how, now, brown cow" variety). Regrets – I never Printed Dave Glance’s "Ode to Pharmacy".

Also, co-editor of the Year Book. I was in charge of the Valettes. Mick Wrublewski is still cranky that the victorious soccer team never got their write-up. I wasn’t in charge of that section, Mick!

Worked for Soul Pattinson and a few privately owned pharmacies. Bought the first one at Dulwich Hill (with wife, Janet – also a pharmacist). There, we lived in the attached residence. Decided to bail out after the whole family was awoken at 3 am by a doting new father - who was told by the night nurse in the local hospital that it would be a good idea to buy a bottle of nose drops for his sleeping infant.

It was then that I decided that there had to be something better to do than pharmacy. So, here I am.

Oh, I served two terms on the committee of the NSW branch of the Pharmacy Guild of Aust. My second term was completed last month (8/99).

The turning point in my conversion to Natural Medicine came when I was very ill and the lady from the then Vita Glow laboratories helped me back to health – rapidly – after the medicos had done their best – to no avail.

My rapid education included learning at the feet of wonderful teachers like Lady Cilento, Alan Macleay, Bob Buist and his colleagues such as Henry Osiecki, Geoffrey Bland, Ewen Cameron and Hub Regtop. It was all eye-popping, brain-stretching stuff. Learning of the advances being made in health management around the world convinced me that we had to drag Australian health care - kicking and screaming - into the 20’th century, one way or another.

Now, Australian health care practitioners are actually taking a leading role in some research areas – and still learning in others (such as how herbal medicine should be tightly managed by prescriptions written by the experts and not just left up to hit-or-miss self selection in grocery shops).

My greatest professional achievements have been in the area of helping customers turn their health around forever with nutritional and holistic advice. Recent thrills have been the rewarding inclusion of herbal medicine in my treatment regimes – as taught by the great Raymond Khoury.

My most satisfying achievements on the Guild committee have been: to spark the debate on herbal medicine; the re-awakening of the need for extemporaneous preparations for pharmacy customers; the institution of a Quality Care programme for ALL pharmacists – and not just a small number of members of particular marketing groups; and the awareness of the need for pharmacy to have a wider community involvement in matters of preventative health education.

Finally, it is my hope that the use of Naturopaths in pharmacy will grow to something more than merely using Naturopaths as glorified shop assistants. These are people whose standard of training is improving at a fast rate – to the point where some post-graduate Naturopaths can hold their own with GPs in the area of Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Symptomatology, Diagnosis and Pathology, their own therapeutics - and exceed them in patient counseling, listening techniques, self-awareness, self-help and bodywork therapies.

That is not to say that they don’t understand and respect GPs for their particular unmatched skills. They do, but nonetheless there is certainly a solid place for the allied health professions now – right up there on the same pedestal.

Certainly, the approach by the Naturopaths in treating their people from the perspective of underlying causes (and hence having much success in routinely reversing chronic illness) perfectly complements the activities of the medical profession – with its great record of success in the area of acute, life-threatening disorders). Here, I include Botanical Medicine diplomates, classical Homoeopaths and Clinical Nutritionists in this category.

The way is certainly clear for each of the health professions to co-exist on an equal footing and to work together – so as each can complement the activities of the other. The overwhelming groundswell of popular opinion is sweeping us to this position in an irresistible tidal wave of growing public health awareness and demand for wellness outcomes.

And so they should.