FRED HOLLOWS

BY MIA MCCLELLAND

Fred Hollows was born in New Zealand in 1929. Growing up, he always wanted to be a missionary, but a stint working in a mental hospital convinced him to follow a career in medicine. After completing his studies and specialising as an ophthalmologist (eye doctor), Fred moved to Australia. Within five years he was head of the Eye Department at a leading Sydney hospital.

WHAT ARE SOME INTERESTING ABOUT FRED HOLLOWS CHILDHOOD OR EARLY LIFE

WHY DID FRED HOLLOWS TAKE THIS PATH IN HIS LIFE?

Fred once said, I studied medicine so I could help others set a leg or whatever and its given me a great deal of satisfaction. But setting legs was not what Professor Fred Hollows ended up doing. Fred then heard about a civil war in Eritrea11 (Africa) and how there were no eye doctors to treat the people who were suffering. At the time, Eritrea was one of the world's poorest countries and once again, Fred could not just stand by and do nothing' Each year in Africa about two and a half million people go blind...and they just go blind... they sit around in their huts,' he said at the time. So again he mobilised a team to go over and help. .

WHAT CONTRIBUTION DID FRED HOLLOWS MAKE TO THE WORLD?

In his second job, at Tauranga Public Hospital, he made a deal with the eye surgeon to see all his eye cases and take notes and assist in the operations. In exchange, Fred took some of the surgeons ear, nose and throat cases. By the end of that year, Fred was doing cataracts himself and finding eye medicine more and more interesting. Ophthalmology was a trade he described as not especially prestigious, but good work. He took an ophthalmology job at Wellington, the biggest hospital in the country, and was there to break open the crate when the first retinal camera to be imported into New Zealand arrived. He felt he was in the vanguard of eye work and enjoying it, but there was a lot he didnt know and no specialist post-graduate training in New Zealand at that time.

HOW DID FRED HOLLOWS WORK MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD?

Fred was a man who was quick to recognise a problem and even quicker to act and find a solution. In his words: 'When I've seen an opportunity, I haven't sat down and called a committee meeting...we've gone and done it.' This attitude helped him to inspire many doctors and other health professionals to volunteer
Fred was many things to many people a husband, a father, a friend, a skilled ophthalmologist and for a few politicians and bureaucrats, an irritating thorn in their side. But above all else he was a humanitarian, which made him a terrific doctor. He truly believed it was the role of a doctor to serve, to help those in need, says Gabi Hollows.

INFORMATION ON FRED

In early 1989 Fred was diagnosed with cancer. Fred continued working and fundraising and receiving treatment, visiting Eritrea again and Nepal many times, taking the family with him whenever he could. But four years after he was diagnosed, Fred and Gabi Hollows decided they needed to find a way to continue his work. Fred and I started this Foundation around our dinner table in 1992 with a group of friends and supporters, says Gabi. By that stage we knew he didn't have much longer to live; cancer was making it more and more difficult to do the sight saving work he loved. Fred died less than one year later. It was a terribly sad time, but brightened by the knowledge that through the Fred Hollows Foundation continued his work.

THE FRED HOLLOWS FOUNDATION

The Fred Hollows Foundation is a lean and independent, non-profit, secular organisation that was started by Fred and Gabi Hollows and friends the year before he died. The Foundation has worked in over 40 countries around the world and with Indigenous communities in remote parts of Australia, and continues to be inspired by Freds lifelong endeavour to end avoidable blindness and improve Indigenous health. According to Fred, in 1987 he came back from his first visit to Eritrea all fired up and got stuck into helping arrange support for the Eritreans. In 1988 Dr Sanduk Ruit and Gabi organised an Australian support group called the Nepal Eye Program Australia, and fundraising had been going well. In early 1989 Fred was diagnosed with cancer. Fred continued working and fundraising and receiving treatment, visiting Eritrea again and Nepal many times, taking the family with him whenever he could. But four years after he was diagnosed, Fred and Gabi Hollows decided they needed to find a way to continue his work. Fred and I started this Foundation around our dinner table in 1992 with a group of friends and supporters, says Gabi. By that stage we knew he didn't have much longer to live; cancer was making it more and more difficult to do the sight saving work he loved. Fred died less than one year later. It was a terribly sad time, but brightened by the knowledge that through The Fred Hollows Foundation his work would carry on.

HTTP://AUSTRALIA.GOV.AU/ABOUT-AUSTRALIA/AUSTRALIAN-STORY/FRED-HOLLOWS HTTP://WWW.HOLLOWS.ORG.AU/FRED-HOLLOWS

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