scone.com.auDr Bronwyn Stokes OAM
MERRIWA doctor Bronwyn Helen Stokes knew she was going to receive an Order of Australia medal before she died in November last year and her husband said she was very proud.
“We only found out she won when she was in palliative care a couple of weeks before she died,” Bryce Stokes explained.
“But she was able to sign the acceptance form and she was pretty cuffed and pleased for the family,” he said.
Dr Bronwyn Stokes knew she was receiving the OAM before she died and was proud for her family.
Dr Stokes was described by her husband as a country girl who was passionate about rural medicine and healthy living.
“He was a GP but with a difference, she advocated a way of healthy living well before this craze of the paleo diet came in,” Mr Bryce said.
“She grew up in Guyra, went to NEGS and then did medicine at the University of New South Wales, but she was always a country girl and preferred country living,” he said.
“We were at Walcha first, then 16 years in Tamworth where she had 5,000 patients on her books, six years at Merriwa all the time advocating healthy lifestyle and the last four years at Port Macquarie, but we still have the property at Merriwa where we’d return on her days off,” he said.
“She was a very reserved person, not outspoken, but very determined, honest, had terrific integrity, she was the most wonderful mother and we had three children, Charles is a mining engineer, one is a doctor Hester Alice and James the youngest has a degree in commerce and she was a wonderful step-mother to my three older children Sarah, Andrew and Huey,” Bryce Stokes said.
The family of Dr Stokes will travel to Government House in April to accept the award on her behalf.
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