abc.net.au/news/doctor-shortage-regional-australia-broome-rural-clinical-school/101773194Alex Harris was studying medicine in Perth in the early 2000s when he signed up for a new program sending fifth-year students to study in regional Western Australia.
Not long after arriving in Broome in 2004, Dr Harris was put to work suturing emergency department patients and helping with surgeries. Cathy Larkin, a pharmacist, was living there too. She was a keen runner but it was well known Alex Harris was not.So when he started running tens of kilometres a week, his friend and fellow RCS Broome graduate, Michael Collin, knew something was up.Fast forward 18 years and it seems his efforts certainly paid off.Cathy Harris eventually became a doctor too and for several years the couple moved around Australia, living and working in various towns and cities.
"Once we had our second child in Tasmania, in the middle of winter and it was dark and cold, we thought, 'Bugger this', so we made plans for the next year to come back." "Whether it's a 10-week term as an intern, or half a year, or a year … usually on average it's about a year," he said.