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I’ve read that you lead a science- centric lifestyle. Tell us about that. I grew up in a family of scientists. I think science is something we all enjoyed and grew up thinking about – being encouraged to think about how things work and not just taking processes and things for granted. I enjoyed studying science at school. When I came to the end of year 12, I was trying to work out what to do with my life and didn’t really know what career I wanted, but I’d always enjoyed science, so I thought I’d do a Bachelor of Science at university. I went to Monash University in Melbourne and studied there, and I ended up doing Honours in Genetics – in fruit fly genetics – and really loved that. It was in my third year at Monash that we did a subject called Human Genetics and Genetics Counselling, and I think that’s where I really found my love ... I found out about the profession of genetic counselling but really found the love of a career where genetics meets working with people and the impact of genetics on a family and what that means in their life. I finished my Honours and then worked as a research assistant for a couple of years ... I put the genetics on hold for a bit. I ended up quitting my job to travel around Europe for a few months. I was getting on the plane to come home and really thinking about what I was going to do with my life when I got back. I was considering a PhD or genetic counselling, and by the time I made it back to Canberra, where I was living at the time, it was genetic counselling. That was the decision. I studied genetic counselling at the University of Melbourne. It was a graduate diploma at that time. Then I moved to Sydney for the job I have now, as a cardiac genetic counsellor at the Centenary Institute at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Last year I also started a PhD \\\\\\\[laughs\\\\\\\]. So, I guess it’s a science- centric life. That sure is very science-centric. Tell us more about how you came to be a genetic counsellor. What does that role entail? Genetic counsellors are trained in genes, genetics and genomics, and also in counselling skills and talking with families. We’re all about understanding genetic disease and helping families and patients understand high-level medical information about the condition that they have, or are maybe at risk of in their family. We’re a bit like a translator where we take all the medical jargon and put it into lay terms so that people can understand what’s going on and can make an informed decision about their healthcare. “Remember: if things do get hard, support each other as colleagues.” Genetic counsellors will talk to you about genetic testing, what testing might be right for you, what the possible results might be, what a positive or negative result means, what \\\\\\\[happens\\\\\\\] if we find something that we’re a bit uncertain about. We can also talk about the impact of genetic testing on your family and what happens if your brother’s positive but you’re negative, and how that might affect your relationship. We’ve often seen families who’ve gone through quite a bit of grief or prolonged disability, so we help the family through the impact of the disease on their family and talk them through that, helping them to better understand the disease and give them the information and the tools they need to make sure their family is well cared for and looked after. So, we work in all aspects of genetic disease. I specialise in cardiac genetics but many of my colleagues work in cancer genetics, prenatal genetics, adult genetics and paediatric genetics, and more general clinics. There are also neurogenetics, ophthalmology – we work across lots of disciplines – and there are lots of us who are not only working in clinical care but also in research with testing laboratories, with academic institutions and research and education. Can you share some of your experiences as a genetic counsellor working at a medical research institute? Some of the first presentations of disease for the families affected by these conditions can be sudden cardiac death. So, it’s a person who was previously well, had no symptoms and then for whatever reason, on that particular day has a cardiac arrest and they’re unable to be revived. Obviously, there’s a lot of grief and ... lots of things that are going on for the family. When these cases occur, not only has this person passed away suddenly, but there’s also this question: is there a genetic heart disease that’s caused this person to pass away and, if so, who in the family is also at risk? I’d say that’s probably one of the hardest referrals we get. But it’s also a place where we can do a lot of good to help these families who are going through a really hard time, and help them answer the two main questions they come in with: ‘why did my son/daughter pass away?’ and ‘how do we stop that happening to other people in the family?’ This has become the focus of the research team that I’ve worked in over the past 14 years ... to try to understand the causes of sudden cardiac death, but also how we support these families more. TO PAGE 18 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW 17 RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • MAR 2021