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Writer's pictureThe Beagle

Vale: Catherine Hurst

First known to many of us for her deeply courageous but dignified public testimony as a

local cancer patient at the 2022 Parliamentary Inquiry into Rural and Regional Health, Cathie was a devastatingly effective member of the ONE New L4 Eurobodalla Regional Hospital Advocates Group and made a special contribution, typically without fanfare, whose

significance it is impossible to calculate or over-estimate.

Cathie’s vital contributions as a local witness under oath in total support of her local

Healthcare Advocate-in-Chief and now Member for Bega, Dr Michael Holland MP, could only be described as heroic and searingly uncompromising: Ensuring that those listening to her testimony, most particularly NSW Health’s senior executive, understood precisely what it

meant to be in her and so many other local cancer patients’ shoes when directed to make

long, uncomfortable journeys to access radiotherapy.

Cathie’s impactful contributions speaking at large rallies, Petition presentations and media

interviews also brought her into personal contact with all manner of Federal and State

political representatives, with many of whom, like Federal Member for Gilmore, Fiona

Phillips MP, and the new Health Minister Ryan Park MP, she established a relationship of warm regard and respect for a modest but genuine local hero.

Above: Cathie in light pink

A retired member of AUS AID, Cathie had a wide circle of longstanding friendships in and outside government circles and from her many international postings. She will be fondly remembered by all as a valued colleague and a wonderful friend. We express our deepest condolences to her partner, Grahame, and to her parents, to her siblings and to her children, in their personal loss of a fine and loving family member.


In customary defiance of medical opinion, it was entirely in character of Cathie in her last

days to successively watch over the marriage of a daughter and for the elections to be

completed and the count of her favourite Local Member to be successfully confirmed before literally letting go and quietly slipping off peacefully into the deepest of all sleeps.

Vale, Cathie: We shall all miss you.

Fitzroy and Mylène Boulting

On behalf of ONE New L4 Eurobodalla Regional Hospital Advocates and the community.

NOTE: Comments were TRIALED - in the end it failed as humans will be humans and it turned into a pile of merde; only contributed to by just a handful who did little to add to the conversation of the issue at hand. Anyone who would like to contribute an opinion are encouraged to send in a Letter to the Editor where it might be considered for publication

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