Hi I’m Patrick, a Wiradjuri man who was born and grew up on Dharawal country in South Western Sydney. I am of Wiradjuri-Finnish descent on my mother’s side and Finnish on my father’s. My Aboriginal roots go back to Snake Rock west of Peak Hill from which the large Aboriginal community was moved by government to Bulgandramine mission situated just to the north-east towards Narromine and Dubbo. My family has actually been fortunate enough to trace our ancestry back to James Nyrang who was a tracker for NSW Police at the turn of the 20^th century. His daughter Sarah Waterloo was my great great grandmother.

I started my university education at Western Sydney University after sitting the Higher School Certificate in 2012 and a gap year in Norway and Finland in 2013. At WSU I started a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 2014. I completed the first two years with a Distinction and then took leave to complete a Bachelor of Medical Research. I completed this research project at The University of Sydney. After graduating I decided to take further extended leave from my medical studies at Western Sydney University to complete a PhD at The University of Sydney during which time I was supervised by Greg Sutherland at the NSW Brain Tissue Resource Centre in the newly opened Charles Perkins Centre.

I am excited to say that I’m now working as a Junior Medical Officer (JMO) at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) in Camperdown. I am currently working in Haematology and will have rotations through Emergency, Renal, Orthopaedics, and then relief and nights at the end of the year through to the start of February next year. I will be at RPAH for at least the next two years but would love to continue my medical training there in the years beyond.  It’s early days but so far I am enjoying the change of pace and responsibility as a JMO.

I am also very keen to keep up my research interests in Alzheimer’s disease and glioblastoma with different research groups based at The University of Sydney. I am still undecided on exactly where I want to go with my future medical training, but currently I’m leaning towards physician’s training and advanced training in Neurology. Neuropathology is also of interest but I would likely have to go overseas to pursue a proper training programme.