Dr Annabelle Mahar passed away at the peak of her career in 2022.

She was one of Australia’s most tal­ent­ed anatom­i­cal pathol­o­gists with inter­na­tion­al­ly-recog­nised exper­tise in bone/sarcoma and pul­monary pathology.

Annabelle was best known for her very high diag­nos­tic acu­men, as well as her friend­ly, mod­est and self­less dis­po­si­tion. She epit­o­mised our RITE values.

She was held in the high­est esteem by all who had the priv­i­lege of know­ing her includ­ing pathol­o­gy staff, and the physi­cians and sur­geons she worked with.

Dr Mahar would not have sought this recog­ni­tion, but her col­leagues believe it is fit­ting. The incred­i­ble num­ber of tes­ti­mo­ni­als pro­vid­ed to sup­port her posthu­mous nom­i­na­tion speak for themselves.

Pro­fes­sor Michael Boy­er, med­ical oncol­o­gist and Chief Clin­i­cal Offi­cer of Chris O’Brien Lifehouse:
“She would reg­u­lar­ly call or mes­sage me late in the evening with results which we had been anx­ious­ly await­ing. She tru­ly recog­nised that at the oth­er end of every test there was a patient, to whom time­ly results meant everything.”

Pro­fes­sor Bri­an McCaugh­an, car­dio­tho­racic sur­geon RPAH:
“The smile, her joy­ous per­son­al­i­ty, the delight­ful­ly melod­ic ‘ABC’ voice that total­ly reas­sured you. How­ev­er, what I will always remem­ber is Annabelle’s integri­ty in report­ing … (that) ben­e­fit­ted great­ly both the clin­i­cian and the patient.”

Ms Car­lie Wiers­ma, Lab­o­ra­to­ry Super­vi­sor, Tis­sue Pathol­o­gy RPAH:
“Her kind nature (she nev­er spoke ill of any­body no mat­ter how chal­leng­ing the sit­u­a­tion), inspired us to treat each oth­er with the same con­sid­er­a­tion. Her thank­ful­ness remind­ed us that even the most menial of jobs was important.”

Dr Mahar allowed her AP trainees to ‘stretch their wings in a safe place and at the same time expand their knowl­edge with next lev­el stuff’. She inspired them with her gen­eros­i­ty and hands-on approach.
Her kind man­ner, con­stant moral sup­port and encour­age­ment was val­ued by all. She is great­ly missed.