HE HAS already been gifted the keys to the city of Tamworth, but yesterday long-serving doctor Robert Smee was awarded honours on a national level.
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As part of the Australia Day honours yesterday, Dr Smee was named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his service to medicine as a radiation oncologist.
Dr Smee said he was “pretty amazed” when he received the letter of nomination from the Governor-General.
He said his work was about helping patients and respecting people, not about the hope of national accolades.
“It’s all about people – dealing with their despairs, their joys, the fun that people can provide even in their moments of adversity,” Dr Smee said.
For 30 years Dr Smee has been making a weekly trek to Tamworth from his home in Sydney to treat cancer patients in the country.
“Yes, it’s an effort, but it’s quite enjoyable. I love working with the country folk and work for them,” he said.
He said it was a “fortuitous” arrangement when he took over a retiring doctor’s rural clinic.
“For some bizarre reason the community has decided they think I’m reasonable and they want me to keep coming up,” he said.
Dr Smee specialises in treating cancers of the head and neck when he works in Sydney, but his Tamworth ritual has given him a more general experience, treating “just about anyone who walks through the door”.
The well-respected doctor said he was quietly celebrating Australia Day with a good book, seafood and a glass of bubbly.
“Australia Day is an opportunity to recognise ourselves as a nation. We’ve been through adversity, but we’ve come out of it,” he said.
“It’s a great country. I spent two years overseas but I couldn’t wait to come home. My only concern is that we can’t beat the All Blacks more frequently.”
The associate professor has been working in radiation oncology at the Prince of Wales Hospital since 1985, was an executive member of the Royal Australasian College of Radiologists and was the organiser of the inaugural meeting of the Australia and New Zealand Head and Neck Society in 1999.
He has also convened a number of international conferences on stereotactic radiosurgery (often minimally invasive brain surgery) and laryngeal cancer in the throat. He is convening a world laryngeal cancer conference in Cairns in July.
