DARING DOCTOR PENS MEMOIR ABOUT EXPLOITS

A DOCTOR who practised in the Whitsundays for more than 20 years has written a book about his humanitarian missions around the world.

Described as a “captivating collection of true stories”, Dr John Parker’s memoir takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride, from refugee camps in Zaire, to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and an Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.

Honest and raw, ‘From Cholera to Ebola: Confessions of a Humanitarian Doctor’ was released on May 29 and doesn’t pull any punches, with Dr Parker going to the world’s most dangerous and volatile hotspots.

It provides a glimpse into “unknown worlds behind closed borders”, including a major burns unit in Iraq, an AIDS treatment facility in Uganda and a covert clinic in North Sudan.

Dr Parker founded the Whitsunday Doctors Service, in 1979, and ran the medical practice until 2000.

“During this time, I began to go on humanitarian missions, initially with the Red Cross and then with Medicine Sans Frontieres,” Dr Parker, whose three children all went to school in the Whitsundays, said.

He was the president of the Cannonvale State School P&C for many years and was instrumental in getting the school’s swimming pool built.

His two lives could not have been more different, with the book an “unfiltered and uncensored” collection of true stories and personal confessions.

Whether he was challenging the bureaucracy of refugee camps or cradling children as they died, Dr Parker spent a quarter of a century far from his comfort zone and the norms of medical practice.

“There are some things you cannot be taught, you have to live them,” he writes.

“I’ve experienced the joys and ecstasies of survival, resilience and recovery. I’ve been inspired to live my life with purpose, passion and presence.

“My heart has constantly switched between sadness and ecstasy. The road has been rocky. It has cost me a couple of marriages, a fragmented medical career and, at times, has threatened my sanity.”

Dr Parker’s experiences made him uniquely skilled to lead COVID-19 quarantine efforts and, since finishing the memoir, he has been part of the initial response team managing crew quarantine aboard the infamous ‘Diamond Princess’ cruise ship, in Tokyo, and the ‘Grand Princess’, in San Francisco Bay, before returning to Australia and repatriating crew aboard the notorious ‘Ruby Princess’, in Sydney.

‘From Cholera to Ebola: Confessions of a Humanitarian Doctor’ has a foreword written by Tim Costello, the current chief advocate for World Vision Australia.

It is available from Amazon, Booktopia, Austin Macauley Publishers and retail booksellers.

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