Dr Annette Clement: Saving lives was just the beginning

By NICKY ELLIOTT When Dr Annette Clement moved to Parkes in 1968 with husband Ian, she was fresh off a two-year adventure living with a tribe in Uganda. Annette and Ian first locked eyes as medical students at Scotland’s Edinburgh University. In Botany class Ian was giving the flower he was supposed to be dissecting a cheeky sniff and when he turned to Annette with a wink, there was pollen all over his moustache. A lifelong love-affair ensued. After graduating medicine, the pair set off for Uganda, and lived with the Sebei tribe, a fearless people at war with other tribes up and down Mount Elgon. Dr Ian built a hospital and tended to smallpox, spear wounds and burns from the cooking fire while, without books and with just two Bunsen burners, Annette taught science at a school for Ugandan students from primary to grandfather age, using the jungle as a textbook. When a student killed a snake or found roadkill, it came to Annette’s science room. There was a brief return to Scotland, where Annette’s first solo surgery was a vasectomy – “and a bloody good one” – and then the Clement family arrived in Australia as Ten Pound Poms. Daughter Nicky had by now joined brothers Duncan, Ian and Richard. The family lived on 13 acres on Back Yamma Road, with a few mine shafts out the back. Annette carved out a jaw-dropping garden and grew vegetables, insisting her kids eat brown bread before its time. She and Dr Ian settled into practice at Clarinda Street surgery with respected partners Drs Jim and Ann Allison, and John Waddell. Twenty-five years of sleep deprivation followed, consulting with patients, operating at Parkes Hospital and at nighttime being on call for car wrecks, births and heart attacks. Saving lives and delivering babies wasn’t enough. When Ian took up jogging, Annette formed the Parkes Joggers Club, and then arranged annual fun runs that even Olympic runners travelled to participate in. At hockey tryouts she took pity on the uncoordinated little girls nobody else wanted, starting up and coaching the Pegasus hockey team. Within two years the girls were transformed, and through to the grand final. Annette’s crowning achievement was the creation of the Parkes Diving Club which eventually became the largest club in NSW. Annette transported kids across the state in the back of her Hiace van, 14 at a time. To the divers, coach Annette was and always will be their adored “Mrs C.” After 25 years, Annette and Ian retired to Smiths Lake on the Mid North Coast. Annette took up windsurfing and Scottish Country Dancing. A breast cancer survivor herself, she and Ian started Reach for Recovery, a cancer support group, teaching meditation and nutrition for complementary healing. Hundreds of cancer patients lived lives longer than the NSW average and also learned to make peace with dying. Annette and Ian trekked the Himalayas, rode the Orient Express, and survived the fateful QANTAS Flight 32, which almost became the world’s deadliest plane disaster. They travelled to 65 countries, and Annette could cook the national dishes of all of them… although healthier, oil-free and probably with alfalfa sprouts. Dr Annette Clement passed away peacefully on Wednesday, October 8 at her home in Smiths Lake, aged 88. Dr Ian Clement passed away on 8 February, 2021, aged 86. All are welcome to celebrate Annette’s life at 11am on Friday, October 17 at the Green Cathedral, on the shores of Wallis Lake in Booti Booti.

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