Jetlagged!

It’s been ages since I have posted anything to this page, but today I feel motivated to give a bit of an update.

I have been reflecting on how fortunate I have been since undertaking my Churchill Fellowship at the end of 2015. At the time, other Fellows assured me that the Fellowship itself was just the beginning, and that the really exciting stuff was ahead of me – out of sight and unknown, but coming. Well, it seems that someone had a crystal ball, because the last year has been filled will challenging but exciting opportunities.

In May 2018 I was invited to present at a panel discussion on international surrogacy in Nashville for Family Lawyers in the American Barristers Association, and so far this year, I have presented to health professionals at the Australian Association of Health and Behavioural Medicine Conference in NZ, and was invited to be part of a panel of Fertility Specialists discussing international third party reproduction at the ASPIRE conference in Hong Kong. In June I was invited to attend another congress on international surrogacy (at Cambridge University), and tomorrow I am heading back to the USA to Philadelphia to participate in a shared workshop on open discusser in donor conception.  This workshop is part of the ASRM annual congress and I am incredibly proud to be standing alongside some really esteemed clinical colleagues and researchers in discussing the future of donor conception.

There is no way I could have predicted the way 2019 would turn out, and I am excited (and a little nervous!) about what 2020 might hold. Despite exhaustion, jetlag and my nagging Imposter Syndrome, I remain so grateful to the QLD Churchill Trust selection committee for seeing merit in my topic and me and starting me on this incredible path a few years ago. I know it is helping me as a practitioner and I believe that these opportunities are providing me with the chance to share my learnings amongst my amazing colleagues.