This week marked the end of an era; the culmination of a medical career that stretches back more than 50 years — longer than I’ve been alive!

It was the week my dear old mum Dr Sushila Badami formally deregistered as a medical practitioner with AHPRA.

She was the first person in her family to go to university, she was our first doctor, and — as one of only five women admitted to the prestigious Kasturba Medical College in Manipal, India — she was among the first female doctors in her state.

Although she topped her year in anaesthetics, and was offered places in hospitals in the UK and US, she came to Australia in 1973 because it was the only place my less-academically accomplished father could get a visa, by persuading an old pen-pal to sponsor them.