Amazing People Unplugged

By Rhonda Turner

Inspiring Editors: Ita Buttrose and Rhonda Turner at a Cure Brain Cancer Foundation function in Sydney

AS we weaved in and out of ridiculous traffic in George Street, Sydney last Thursday I was quietly glad that my debilitating brain tumours had deprived me of my driver’s licence some years ago.

All I had to do now was sit nervously in the passenger seat and marvel that my younger daughter Keryn was handling all the stress, not only of the relentless traffic but of the constant need in the past 14 years to escort her mother to medical appointments and happier events like the one we were heading to now in the Sydney Town Hall where renowned neurosurgeon Prof. Charlie Teo was to be interviewed by Ita Buttrose.

“Charlie Teo Unplugged” the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation called it.

My elder daughter Leigh is a major fundraiser for the Foundation and received tickets to this event which enabled myself and her sister (my escort) to attend on her behalf.

Dr Teo  had already displayed controversial outspokenness just the morning before on Ten Network program Studio 10 in which Ms Buttrose asked all the questions that led to Dr Teo calling for a Royal Commission into what he claimed is a culture of bullying in Australian healthcare.

Keryn Turner, Charlie Teo and Rhonda Turner at Sydney Town Hall last week.

Unplugged, he reiterated and expanded on his bullying claims, which drew astonished sighs from the audience.

Back in the George Street traffic and heading for the Sydney Harbour Bridge on our drive home I tried to recall if at any time in the past 14 years I had ever been denied surgery for any of the multiple meningiomas that keep invading my brain as relentlessly as this Sydney traffic invades peace and quiet.

After 10 brain surgeries now I feel my future rests with vital research into brain disease and the amazing skills of neurosurgeons who keep me alive.

*Rhonda Turner was editor of the Scone Advocate many years.