Meet Ethan. A trainee with his heart in healthcare

Technical Officer at NSW Health Pathology’s John Hunter Immunology Laboratory Deb Capper is hanging up her well-worn lab coat and retiring after more than 50 years of dedicated service.

Deb’s col­leagues gath­ered this week to farewell their long-stand­ing friend and cel­e­brate an incred­i­ble career that spans five decades.

Deb reflect­ed on the highs and lows, and all the changes she’s wit­nessed in pathol­o­gy and healthcare.

“I always want­ed to work in a lab – after com­plet­ing my sci­ence degree at the Uni­ver­si­ty of New­cas­tle, I knew I want­ed to do lab work, espe­cial­ly after com­plet­ing my work expe­ri­ence over the sum­mer break,” she said.

“I start­ed my first pathol­o­gy job back in 1974 dur­ing my uni­ver­si­ty sum­mer hol­i­days and received a full-time role as a hos­pi­tal sci­en­tist at Newcastle’s Mater Hos­pi­tal in the bio­chem­istry depart­ment in 1976.

“I stayed at the Mater Hos­pi­tal lab­o­ra­to­ry from 1976 – 1983 and worked across the blood bank/haematology and bio­chem­istry depart­ments. It was a real­ly var­ied role, where I got to rotate around all labs, doing all parts of the test­ing from col­lect­ing a patient sam­ples, prepar­ing the sam­ples and then run­ning the tests,” she said.

That hard work paid off, and Deb was giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to look after the lab as the Act­ing Head of Bio­chem­istry, when her super­vi­sor took leave to com­plete her PhD.

“I then changed course and worked as a Research Assis­tant at the Roy­al New­cas­tle Hos­pi­tal in the Immunol­o­gy Depart­ment in 1999 ‑2000. We were respon­si­ble for the sali­va test­ing on the Aus­tralian Olympic swim­ming team for the 2000 Syd­ney Olympic Games,” she said.

“The sali­va test­ing sup­port­ed our swim­mers to get ready to com­pete at the Olympics, our test­ing was able to pin­point when they got infec­tions and sup­port their health so they could per­form at their best.”

Deb said she’s had many dif­fer­ent roles and got to work across some of the Hunter’s largest lab­o­ra­to­ries, mak­ing many friends along the way.

“In my cur­rent role, I pre­pare and analyse urine and blood sam­ples that come into the lab test­ing to deter­mine if patients have myeloma/cancer. I also help sup­port the flow of work in the lab by col­lect­ing sam­ples from oth­er depart­ments and help­ing oth­er col­leagues as needed.

“It has been reward­ing to have worked for NSW Health Pathol­o­gy for over 50 years. I’ve seen so many changes across the many roles I’ve worked in at Newcastle’s Mater Hos­pi­tal (now Cal­vary Mater New­cas­tle,) the for­mer Roy­al New­cas­tle Hos­pi­tal and now John Hunter Hospital.

“The work has always evolved, and I have been for­tu­nate to work with so many won­der­ful col­leagues and cre­ate life­long friendships.

“It’s been reward­ing to know that I have been a part of an organ­i­sa­tion that has grown and adapt­ed to change, while always putting patients first.”

The biggest change Deb has seen has been the automa­tion of machines – shift­ing from hands on, man­u­al test­ing approach­es to improved tech­nol­o­gy that auto­mates more of the process.

“In the ear­ly days of my career, we used to man­u­al­ly col­lect blood on the wards and do all test­ing – now this is han­dled by spe­cialised teams. The size of labs has also increased sig­nif­i­cant­ly – going from small teams where you knew every­one, to now where there’s hun­dreds of peo­ple and many pathol­o­gy depart­ment depart­ments in the John Hunter – it’s a huge operation!

“Despite all these years, I’ve loved don­ning the lab coat and play­ing a small but vital role in the impor­tant work that NSW Health Pathol­o­gy does for the peo­ple of NSW.”

NSW Health Pathology’s John Hunter Immunol­o­gy Lab­o­ra­to­ry Unit Super­vi­sor Kar­la Lem­mert said Deb’s gen­er­ous nature will be missed.

“I have per­son­al­ly known Deb for as long as I’ve worked here in pathol­o­gy. She has worked across mul­ti­ple depart­ments and in lat­er years worked con­cur­rent­ly in bio­chem­istry and immunol­o­gy where she ends her career in 2025,” Kar­la said.

“In that time, she has raised three beau­ti­ful chil­dren whilst man­ag­ing a vari­ety of roles in immunol­o­gy and jug­gling work­ing shifts in bio­chem­istry and immunol­o­gy. She was a sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tor to our department’s research projects over the years, and we’re real­ly going to miss her.”

Deb is swap­ping the hos­pi­tal lab­o­ra­to­ry for the open road.

“I am look­ing for­ward to switch­ing off the alarm clock, enjoy­ing a slow­er pace and the sim­pler plea­sures in life. Hope­ful­ly there will be more time for long walks with my hus­band and doing jig­saw puz­zles – one of my favourite hob­bies since COVID-19!” Deb said.

“I also look for­ward to spend­ing more time with my hus­band, three grand­chil­dren and plan­ning some spe­cial hol­i­days in Aus­tralia and over­seas with fam­i­ly and friends.”

Hap­py retire­ment Deb – you will be missed!