WILLIAMS, Nicholas
ISBN 978-1-923386-60-0
PAPERBACK
Proof of Life
The story of how an anxious country boy found out about the world and how to make a difference in it
A student elective in the New Guinea Highlands in the mid-1970s lit a fire in Nick Williams’ belly that determined his medical career. Proof of Life tells the extraordinary story of Nick’s journey through Southern Africa during the apartheid era and the emergence of AIDS and his years as a District Medical Officer in central Australia.
A young Dr Nick learned all he knew from nurses and community health workers under kerosene lamps in remote PNG and rural Africa. He embraced the ‘see one, do one, teach one’ method and discovered, with the help of brilliant nurses during a 58-person truck rollover, just how far that mantra can stretch.
Compelling and heart-warming stories unfold throughout this memoir. It’s a story of adventure, challenge, love, and confronting the best and the worst of people when providing medical care in the developing world.
In Australia, Nick’s career is enriched by working with the world’s oldest living culture in the Northern Territory, where he continues to live his passion for working in true collaboration with nurses and health workers.
During an ICRC mission in northern Pakistan, Nick confronted a world in which he could not make any difference. Polarised by feelings of frustration and terror he realised that true value is not always in outcomes but in the journey itself.
Proof of Life is a captivating story of one doctor’s journey, shaped by the places he worked, the people he met, and the risks he took to pursue something greater. Joy, excitement, terror, and fulfilment in giving it all.
About the Author
NICHOLAS WILLIAMS was born in 1957 in the mid-north of South Australia and trained at Adelaide University, graduating in 1980. Doing his medical student elective in the southern highlands of PNG determined the trajectory of his career. He subsequently worked in Transkei in southern Africa and Zimbabwe. He later returned to work in Zambia with his wife Jan.
Since Africa, he has worked most of his career in remote and rural Aboriginal health. This included a year in a remote Cree Indian community in Manitoba province of Canada. He has participated in two humanitarian missions to Pakistan and the Philippines for the ICRC and the Australian Red Cross respectively.
He is married with two adult children and lives in Adelaide. He is a keen bushwalker and cyclist. He has previously written the forward for Bush Nurses edited by Annabell Brayley. He has co-authored several scientific papers (Development of Standard Treatment manuals, Hepatitis C and Opioid substitution treatment). Co-edited the CARPA Standard Treatment Manual, now in its 8th Edition.
Proof of Life is his first book.
