From issuing life-saving blood products in Gosford to competing on the world stage, Reagan Clarke’s journey is anything but ordinary.

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy is cel­e­brat­ing an extra­or­di­nary achieve­ment, with trans­fu­sion staff mem­ber Rea­gan Clarke select­ed to rep­re­sent Aus­tralia in fenc­ing at the 2026 Com­mon­wealth Games in Lagos, Nigeria.

A sci­en­tist in Gos­ford Trans­fu­sion Serol­o­gy, Rea­gan works across trans­fu­sion, haema­tol­ogy and CSR in a fast-paced envi­ron­ment where no two days are the same. His role includes run­ning qual­i­ty con­trol, pro­cess­ing patient sam­ples, work­ing up anti­body pan­els, val­i­dat­ing results, resolv­ing queries, issu­ing blood prod­ucts and respond­ing to emer­gen­cies. He also leads the team’s Anti­body Club, sup­port­ing ongo­ing edu­ca­tion and training.

Out­side the lab, Rea­gan has built an impres­sive sport­ing career. He first took up fenc­ing at age 11 and went on to train and com­pete inter­na­tion­al­ly, includ­ing across Europe and Cana­da, before step­ping away from the sport in 2016 after miss­ing qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the Rio Olympic Games.

“Fenc­ing had stopped being fun for me,” he said. “I didn’t love the per­son I was becom­ing, so I decid­ed to focus on build­ing a career and enjoy­ing life out­side the sport.”

After near­ly nine years away, Rea­gan returned with a new perspective.

“I want­ed to go back because I missed it,” he said. “I just want­ed to be hap­py with my fenc­ing. If I came last that was ok, so long as I felt I had fenced my best.”

That return has already deliv­ered remark­able results. Rea­gan has now been select­ed to rep­re­sent Aus­tralia in both men’s indi­vid­ual and team Epee events at the Com­mon­wealth Games this August.

Reflect­ing on the achieve­ment, Rea­gan said: “After a near nine-year retire­ment from com­pet­i­tive fenc­ing, I’m extreme­ly proud of this accom­plish­ment and excit­ed to rep­re­sent Aus­tralia on the world stage. I’m look­ing for­ward to draw­ing on my inter­na­tion­al expe­ri­ence as I aim to win the indi­vid­ual event and help lead the team to gold.”

Juggling work and sport with a supportive team

Return­ing to com­pet­i­tive form while work­ing full-time shift work has not been with­out its challenges.

“I’m old­er, and there’s a new gen­er­a­tion of fencers who are younger, faster and stronger,” he said. “But I’ve always been adapt­able and focused on solv­ing prob­lems. My fenc­ing now is about cre­at­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties I can cap­i­talise on.”

Rea­gan is also quick to acknowl­edge the sup­port behind him.

“I’m a big believ­er that one per­son doesn’t achieve suc­cess by them­selves,” he said. “I can only do this because of the work and sac­ri­fice of those around me – my col­leagues and man­ag­er have been incred­i­bly supportive.”

Reagan’s achieve­ment high­lights the diverse tal­ents across NSW Health Pathol­o­gy and the incred­i­ble con­tri­bu­tions our peo­ple make both inside and out­side the workplace.

As he pre­pares for Lagos, his col­leagues across NSW Health Pathol­o­gy will be cheer­ing him on every step of the way.

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