Medicine without borders: from global adventures to giving back
Alison Payne (BSc 1982) followed in her father’s footsteps to study medicine at St Andrews. Here she shares his story and describes her own medical career, what it’s like to live ‘off grid’ on the other side of the world, and why she chose to give back to support future students.
My father – Leonard Robert (Bob) Payne (MB ChB 1957) – was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, in 1920 – the middle of three children. After a first degree in Physics and a career with Dunlop, myopia prevented him from taking on active wartime service and he was sent to Latin America. There, he was based in Lima and tasked with seeking alternative sources of rubber due to the Japanese occupation of Malaysia.
Intrepid trips up the Amazon with rubber tappers were balanced by an active and varied social life. He visited a completely deserted Machu Picchu in 1945. He also became fluent in Spanish, and introduced me, too, to the language and to Hispanic culture.
A post-war move to Medicine
In the post-war years that followed, my father chose medicine over the church (he was a devout Christian) and studied at the Universities of St Andrews and Dundee. In 1959, he met and married my Aberdonian staff nurse mother while working at Arbroath Infirmary, before moving south of the border once more to join a GP partnership in Coventry.
My early memories are of him working long hours there. He particularly loved maternity work and occupational health. His speciality was heavy metal poisoning.
Alison with her father in Wellington in 1997
As a GP’s daughter, I grew up surrounded by medical journals and was fascinated by my dad’s work and my parents’ medical discussions. Ever fond of his alma mater, we spent our summer holidays in St Andrews, where we stayed in University accommodation, including John Burnett, Andrew Melville and David Russell halls.
I worked hard at school, and it seemed logical to me that I should go on to study at a University I knew, in a country that had become my second home.
And so, to St Andrews
St Andrews was a blast. From a pupil with a successful suite of A Levels, I became an average student who scraped through exams while enjoying the social life to the full. There were Academic Families, Union discos, and late-night queuing at Joe’s for white pudding and chips. I cycled everywhere and enjoyed (slightly the worse for wear) Sunday morning pier walks.
I was heavily involved in the Bute Medical Society, made great friends and fell in love for the first time with a wonderful fellow student.
Anatomy finals were a nightmare, the viva a disaster, and my summer trip to Sydney to work on clinical research in perinatal psychiatry was cut short so that I could take resits and clinch the move to Manchester to complete my training.
The new start in Manchester was the next big adventure. My politics moved left, and my social conscience and world view developed; particularly after my 1983 student elective in Sri Lanka at the start of the civil war.
After house jobs in Preston and Lancaster, I joined the Preston GP training scheme. I planned to do Voluntary Service Overseas and move to Australia for good, but meeting my (non-medical) husband, Richard, in 1988 put paid to that idea!
Navigating travel and change
Travel, though, remained on the agenda, and we set off for six months’ backpacking in India and South East Asia before settling in Melbourne, where I worked as a GP.
On our return to the UK, I took up a partnership in a challenging inner-city teaching practice in Preston. Rich opted for a career change and returned to education, becoming a radiographer.
I enjoyed working with the homeless and mentally ill, knowing that as a GP I could make a real difference. I was one of two GPs in the area offering home births. I worked in palliative care and sexual health in the early 1990s; my AIDS patients – many of whom were around my own age – were, in those days, inevitably, terminal.
Richard and Alison were married in secret in Auckland
Rich and I married in secret in Auckland in 1994 and a year later emigrated to New Zealand. He worked at Wellington Hospital, and I started my own practice up the coast, attracting a diverse clientele. We gained citizenship and I studied Spanish at night. In 2005 I volunteered for a few months in a rural Guatemalan clinic; an experience I will never forget.
Then, in 2006, life blew up. My only brother, Tim, who was a police officer in London, died by suicide. We abandoned the life we had built in New Zealand and returned to Coventry, to my parents, to support each other through the devastation of his death.
There, I worked in another inner-city practice, as well as a clinic for asylum seekers and refugees. I volunteered with street sex workers and became involved in activism in relation to Palestine (where I visited and worked in 2009). Sadly after 75 years, the situation there is worse than ever.
Rich and I travelled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. I was privileged to support my mother with Dad’s care until his death, at home, from dementia at the age of 93.
Life off the grid in New Zealand
In 2020, Covid extended our first trip back to New Zealand since our departure 14 years earlier. When we did make it back to the UK, Mum advised us to return there. She wanted to see us ‘home’ where ‘belonged’ before she died.
Alison and Richard by the kahikatea, New Zealand
Now settled back in NZ, we have realised our dream of self-sufficiency. We live ‘off-grid’ with seven sheep, four alpacas, eight chickens and a duck. We’re both vegetarian so the animals are happy! If any old University friends are over here, do come and visit us!
Alison and Richard’s home in New Zealand
For health reasons, I retired from general practice in 2022 and now run a menopause clinic in Martinborough. I am also proud that, as I near the end of my professional life, I work in Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD), helping those who want to end their lives on their own terms, provided they meet the (very strict) criteria. It uses all the skills I have acquired in my 40+ years as a doctor.
Giving back
I have never once regretted my decision to study medicine at St Andrews. Primary care has enabled me to work in a variety of countries and environments. I am now in the fortunate position, now, of being comfortable enough to be able to give back to the place that set me off on my journey. As a second-generation St Andrews alumna, I made my gift not only in my name but in my father’s.
It seemed logical in this day and age, when a university education is a privilege denied to so many, to share my good fortune and provide others with the opportunities to enjoy what I did. Thank you, St Andrews.
Find out more about Scholarships at St Andrews: Making Waves – Scholarships