MOHEB Ghaly treasures the day he ‘found’ the Manning Valley, in 1986, and in fact every day since.
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“I’ll probably have to work harder and longer now, to help re-pay the honour given me,” Dr Ghaly said, reflecting on his Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia, announced yesterday in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
The Egyptian-born medico has been a much loved, valued and respected member of the Manning’s medical fraternity for 26 years, and is honoured for his service to medicine and the community of Taree.
“I am very humbled... this is not something that you expect,” the 62-year-old said. “If you love your work and you continue to enjoy it, why stop? It is a privilege to do medicine, and a privilege to help people.”
A general surgeon with his own practice and a visiting medical officer general surgeon to Manning Hospital, Dr Ghaly says one of his greatest pleasures is teaching, and his particular passion is teaching anatomy.
“Anatomy is not taught at university anymore,” he laments. “But it should be. The body is God’s creation... a beautiful thing.
“Handing over what I know to young students is very rewarding.”
Where once he taught in Sydney, Dr Ghaly now supervises and mentors the University of Newcastle’s under and post-graduate students who pass through Taree’s university medical campus, particularly those preparing to sit their surgery exams.
His OAM officially recognises his role as mentor and supervisor of medical students and trainees in regional New South Wales, as well as his service as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the NSW Regional Board of General Surgery.
In reflective mood, Dr Ghaly agrees it was a harder-than-usual task for him to become accepted and be permitted to practice surgery in Australia.
Above the desk in his medical rooms is the framed certificate – in classic Egyptian script – which signals the start of his career in his homeland, alongside others awarded to him in the United Kingdom and now Australia.
Even though he underwent a considerable stint in the UK before arriving in Australia, his overseas qualifications did not initially satisfy Australian medical requirements, and it was some years before he gained specialist surgeon accreditation.
Dr Ghaly was educated in Egypt and studied there for his basic medical degree, then completed a surgical fellowship while working for four years in the English Midlands.
Knowing the Egyptian Army would be ‘looking’ for him, he went home in order to perform his 15 months’ Army service, and on February 13, 1981 arrived in Australia – a country that a number of his cousins had previously adopted.
He remained in Sydney for six years, working for four years as a registrar at the Prince of Wales Hospital and two years at Bankstown, while all the time attempting to get an Australian fellowship.
“The system didn’t let me in, for a long time,” he says.
He received an offer to move to Scone and work as a general practitioner/surgeon, but had to answer ‘no’ to questions as to his qualifications as a specialist.
“Then it was suggested, after looking at my qualifications and experience, that I apply to the government to get recognition.
“I went to the government body, they did recognise my training and experience, and I headed back to Scone... but the job was gone.
“Then I saw an advertisement for a job in Taree. I applied, was accepted, and 26 years later, I have absolutely no regrets.
“If I had planned my future to my liking, my life here in Taree has been even better than what I could have planned myself.”
Married to wife Mona while they were both still in Egypt, the Ghalys have two daughters, Martha, 30, a doctor in Lismore, and 29-year-old Meeray, an architect based in Sydney. Both were schooled at St Joseph’s Primary School and St Clare’s High School in Taree.
Dr Ghaly has returned to Egypt twice, primarily to accompany his daughters there so they could experience their cultural background.
“But the bombing of churches started the day after we left there,” he says, as a good enough reason for him not to want to return again.
“We certainly do live in the lucky country,” he says of his adopted home. “We are so lucky here... we shouldn’t complain.”
Dr Ghaly owes a great debt of gratitude, he says, to the three most important people in his life who have understood and accepted the long hours that he is absent from home as he continues to see patients at his rooms at Taree and Forster, as well as perform surgery at Manning and Mayo hospitals in Taree, and Cape Hawke at Forster.
And among the family photos and the framed professional citations on the walls of his office are several which reflect his other love - sport.
A keen cyclist and swimmer, Dr Ghaly’s personal best times are recorded from Kempsey and Sydney marathons. At 48 years of age, he completed the Sydney Half Marathon in just over 93 minutes, and aged 44 ran the Kempsey Marathon in three hours 23 minutes.
Having run three marathons and 10 half marathons, his knees told him it was time to give up. “I do miss it, but when you can hardly walk afterwards, you know it’s time to stop.”
Still, he remains ultra-fit and cycles to work in Taree, hardly ever having to use his car.