When Henry Pemberton walked across the stage at The University of Western Australia’s Winthrop Hall to receive his medical degree, he was continuing a family tradition spanning three generations.

The 24-year-old was following in the footsteps of his grandfather Professor Colin Binns, a pioneering nutritionist and public health expert, and mum Sarah, a respected geriatrician who now assists in robotic prostate surgery, who both also graduated in medicine from UWA.

“I look back with great fondness of my days at UWA,” recalls Colin, a John Curtin Emeritus Professor at Curtin University, who at 81 still practices part-time as a GP in Quinns Rock.

“It was a small class and the newly appointed staff came from all over the world and brought a wealth of knowledge and medical experience with them which was inspiring.

“In my fifth year I was lucky enough to spend three  months working in Papua New Guinea which – in among experiences like an emergency landing on a sandbank on a crocodile infested river – set the direction for the rest of my life.  

“I saw some amazing surgery and later returned to work in the country for eight years.

“I had realised that when my own kids got sick, they got better, but when the Guinean kids got sick, they so often didn’t – a lot of which came down to the difference in their nutritional status.

“That got me interested in malnutrition and my research and publications during that period resulted in a scholarship for post grad studies at Harvard University and my subsequent academic career.”

With his grandfather and both parents in health (dad Richard is a urologist), Henry says he was always aware medicine might be an option but hadn’t always been 100 per cent sure.

Image: Proud mum Sarah and grandfather Colin at Henry's graduation day.

His decision crystallised as a teenager after watching a GP in Dunsborough treat his father following a surfing accident.

“I was really struck by how calm he was and his level of skill and the manner he went about things,” the Claremont resident says. 

“He saved us a trip to Busselton Hospital where we would have had to wait in the emergency department for a long time.

“That just stayed with me and I think, then, I knew that that was what I wanted to do.”

The former Christ Church Grammar School student, the eldest of four children, completed a year-long placement at Broome Hospital as part of his degree through UWA's Rural Clinical School, an experience that influenced him deeply.

“Broome Hospital is a smaller hospital with fewer doctors, so when the senior doctors needed a hand you were more likely to get involved, compared to students in the metro hospitals,” he says.

“The whole program was very well organised and we had some fantastic teachers. The health disparity between the regional and city areas really struck me, there’s such a capacity to do good work there.”

It’s a sentiment Sarah can relate to. She and husband Richard, also a UWA medical graduate, were involved in the pilot program of the hugely successful Rural Clinical School during the fifth year of their degree.

“We were based in Kalgoorlie and I was attached to a physician, a geriatrician, Dr Andrew Klimaitis who was a wonderful teacher and I think that really influenced my career,” Sarah says.

“The rural program is incredible, Henry loved it and my daughter Annabel, who is also studying medicine, is going next year.

“It’s funny, Dad is incredibly proud of Henry and of all his grandchildren but really, it’s him we are all so proud of. 

“To still be working at 81 years of age and be so independent. He’s very involved with WASO (the West Australian Symphony Orchestra), the WA Opera and the Wesley Uniting Church – they’re his three passions. And, of course, his family.”

For surf lifesaver Henry, who has been actively involved in community service during his time at university, participating in the Dr Yes program and holding leadership roles in the Fogarty Scholars Association, as well as playing Ultimate Frisbee and running half marathons, holidays are now calling.

But they’ll be short. In early January he start his residency at Royal Perth Hospital – the same hospital his grandfather and parents began their careers, an experience he’s looking forward to.

“UWA was a really good university for me,” he reflects. “They bring in clinical placements at hospitals a bit earlier than the other unis, and I really enjoyed everything UWA had to offer.

“It will be interesting now to see where medicine takes me.”