Current recipient of the BCG Undergraduate Scholarship:

Phoebe Williams - Winner of the 2007 BCG Undergraduate Scholarship

Education
The University of Sydney - Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery
The Australian National University - Bachelor of Commerce (Finance and Development Economics) / Bachelor of Science (Psychology)

Scholarships and Awards of Achievement
2007 - Commonwealth Access Scholarship Recipient
2006 - NSW Finalist (1 of 4) for Young Australian of the Year
2005 - Winner of The University of Sydney Leadership & Excellence Award
2004 - Finalist (1 of 5) for the Australian National University graduation Psychology Prize

Community Service
2005 - Founder and President of the International charitable organisation Hands of Help
2005 - Trustee Upendo Charity Nairobi Kenya
2004 - Board member of Meningococcal Education Inc

An Interview with Phoebe Williams

Phoebe, tell us about your educational background
I went to St Catherine’s School in Waverly for primary school before heading to boarding school at Frensham for my secondary schooling. Frensham was wonderful – they allow you to achieve what you’re best at. I spent a lot of time focussing on music as well as working hard academically. After a gap year abroad in the UK and Italy, I headed to Canberra and began a BSciences/BArts, but after some time working for Macquarie Bank I decided to pick up Commerce. I graduated in 2004 from the ANU with BSc (Psychology)/BComm (Finance & Development Economics) and began the Graduate Medical Program at The University of Sydney the following year. I’m now in my final year of medicine – a real relief to be on the home stretch!

What led you to pursue medicine?
At the age of 14 I suddenly experienced one of the worst headaches of my life one night at school, promptly followed by feeling, without a doubt, the sickest I have ever felt in my life. I remember thinking I was going to die. Then I fell into a coma. I woke a week later in The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. I’d been airlifted there after they had diagnosed me with Meningococcal Meningitis and Septicaemia. The experience left me changed forever. I suddenly had an intense appreciation of life and how lucky I was to still be alive. I watched other kids with the same illness lose limbs and even die in my ward – somehow I scraped through OK. I decided then and there that one day I wanted to be a doctor to give something back to the profession that had saved my life.

You founded a charity called “Hands of Help”. What inspired you to do this?
During my Commerce degree I majored in Development Economics – an area I was fascinated in. I wrote a lot of research on the impact of poverty and health – such as the HIV epidemic – on economic development. After a lot of research I decided to make the books come to life and headed off to Africa for a month in 2004 on a holiday, but what I saw there had such an impact on me that I decided I wanted to do something. I sat on the plane returning to Australia and decided that soon I would head back to Africa again, but next time with more time, money and people to make a difference. I rallied all my mates on my return and tried to bring home to them the issues Africa is facing… I sent around emails, I made phone calls, I showed my photos to anyone who would see them! At the end of 2005 an idea had become a reality, as 17 volunteers – mainly medical students from The University of Sydney – boarded a plane with me to Uganda, where we went and lived in a remote community and built a primary school for three months. We had spent the year working hard to fundraise (as well as working part-time jobs to pay our own way to get there) and headed over with $100,000 which was used not just to build the school but also to provide it with educational resources and establish a Community Health Project, run by Ugandans, for Ugandans.

 

What does Hands of Help do?
Since our inception in 2005, the charity has achieved phenomenal things in developing communities, both here in Australia and overseas (see www.handsofhelp.org). We have now taken over 120 medical students to remote Indigenous communities, Kenya and Uganda. We have built three schools in Uganda – in Bufuula, Buwagi, and Kizinga; and this year another group is heading over to build a fourth in Wanseko, in the war-torn area of Northern Uganda. The Community Health Project has trained over 50 Ugandans as grassroots health workers, proving health care and access to items such as mosquito nets and HIV tests in areas where hospitals don’t exist. In Kenya, we’ve established a Child Sponsorship Program to give 250 orphans the opportunity to attend Secondary School. And here in our own backyard, we’ve created two programs – one in the Far West of NSW and one up North. We send medical students every six months to work in conjunction with local Aboriginal Medical Services, focussing on preventative health care – for example, running Well Person’s Health Checks in remote Indigenous communities. This year the Indigenous project was nominated for the NSW Health Aboriginal Health Awards, which we were really excited about – a great acknowledgement that the work we’re doing is a step in the right direction. And finally, in our mission to raise awareness of African issues here in Australia, we also founded the Sydney African Film Festival (www.sydneyafricanfilmfestival.org) which showcases each year in Australia. alongside photographic exhibitions by a professional photographer who travels with us. They are both very important parts of the work we do – to give Africans a voice is just as important as giving them a hand.

What else are you involved with outside of study and Hands of Help?
Well, study and Hands of Help probably take up a good 16 hours of my average day! But I do have a few other bits and pieces I like to be part of… I play in the NSW and Australian Doctors’ Orchestras each year, which are of a fantastic standard, so this keeps me up-to-date with my cello practice – I’ve played the cello since I was four. I also love to run – I do all the half marathons that are held in Sydney. It's the best way to de-stress and unwind at the end of a long day. I spent some time in Arnhem land running a Health Education program which was an amazing experience and pushed me to establish our Indigenous project, and I work on the board of ‘Meningococcal Education Inc’ to raise awareness of the disease that so nearly took my life. While I used to work as a therapist for kids with autism, I’ve unfortunately had to say goodbye to many of those kids as the clinical years of Medicine (which I’m completing now) require a full-time commitment at the hospital.

What difference will The Boston Consulting Group Undergraduate Scholarship make to you?
The BCG Scholarship will make it possible for me to once again return to Africa this year to oversee our projects. As volunteers, we always pay our own way to get to Africa. As a result, 99% of our funds raised here in Australia for Hands of Help are actually spent on the ground in Africa – which is in stark contrast to a lot of bigger charities. It's a figure we’re proud of but one which requires a lot of work from us to combine our voluntary commitments to run the charity with the efforts required to fundraise and hold events such as the Film Festival. Since I’ve had to give up part-time work because medicine has reached the level where I am required in hospital full-time, I wasn’t going to be able to get to Africa to support our projects this year. However, thanks to the generosity of the crew at BCG, I will now be able to get over there and get my hands dirty helping out again. My family aren’t over-excited about yet another Christmas away but it means so much to me to be able to get there one last time before I become a doctor!

What does being associated with BCG mean for you?
I am absolutely honoured to be the recipient of the 2007 BCG Undergraduate Scholarship. I have always known the company to be a leader in its field and one which recruits only the most brilliant minds. So I was really shocked to be included as part of the team in a way, and recognised as the 2007 Scholar. To be on a list of names including some amazing young achievers such as Tony Moser, Fiona Roughley, David Hume and Sophie Ferris is very humbling.

What do you see yourself doing professionally over the coming years?
I plan to finish off medicine and specialise in paediatrics – I’ve always loved working with kids. I’m particularly interested in then sub-specialising in Infectious Diseases, as killers such as malaria, TB and HIV are wiping out 11 million people each year. Imagine, half of Australia dying every year due to treatable and often preventable diseases. I would like to combine my knowledge in Development Economics and Medicine with my practical experience on the ground in Africa to work in Public Health – hopefully one day for a large organisation such as the WHO to be able to make a big impact in areas of the world that need our help most.

What do most people not know about you?
That I don’t get much sleep at night! A lot of people often ask me how I juggle so many things but the answer is simple… by working very hard every day. Weekends are pretty much a thing of the past too – so it means that time I have ‘off’ is very precious and is usually spent with family and close friends, and my beloved dog Archie!