After an incredible career spanning almost 50 years, we congratulate Deb Holmes as she retires from NSW Health Pathology’s Frenchs Forest laboratory.

Deb began her pathol­o­gy career in 1978, join­ing the lab­o­ra­to­ry work­force at a time when pathol­o­gy looked very dif­fer­ent to today.

But Deb’s jour­ney into pathol­o­gy began much ear­li­er, when she was still in high school in Victoria.

Hop­ing to inspire a future career in nurs­ing, Deb’s moth­er arranged for her to vis­it a local hos­pi­tal. While nurs­ing wasn’t the right fit, Deb quick­ly found her­self fas­ci­nat­ed by a room full of micro­scopes, and this went onto spark­ing a pas­sion that would lead to a life­long career in pathology.

Over the years, Deb worked as a tech­ni­cal offi­cer across a num­ber of lab­o­ra­to­ries includ­ing Lid­combe, Man­ly, Mona Vale, West­mead ICPMR and Roy­al North Shore hos­pi­tals, before becom­ing one of the famil­iar and trust­ed faces at our Frenchs For­est laboratory.

Her man­ag­er, Mitchell Rawl­ings, said Deb’s ded­i­ca­tion has left a last­ing impact.

“Deb’s com­mit­ment and ded­i­ca­tion to NSW Health Pathol­o­gy across her years of ser­vice are an inspi­ra­tion for every­one in the organ­i­sa­tion. We wish her all the best in her retire­ment and she will be sore­ly missed. Thank you, Deb, for your pas­sion and integri­ty, it has been a plea­sure to work with you,” Mitchell said.

Deb has long been the go-to per­son for onsite haema­tol­o­gists, col­lec­tors, nurs­ing staff and patients, and is known for her knowl­edge, reli­a­bil­i­ty and will­ing­ness to help.

Deb was recent­ly cel­e­brat­ed with a well-deserved after­noon tea, joined by col­leagues from Frenchs For­est and Roy­al North Shore Haema­tol­ogy, as well as doc­tors, nurs­es and sup­port staff from GenesisCare.

As Deb begins this new chap­ter, we thank her for her out­stand­ing ser­vice and wish her a hap­py and well-deserved retire­ment filled with relax­ation, adven­ture and time spent doing the things she loves.

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