Congratulations to Dr Freyja Page

TSA is delighted to announce that Dr Freyja Page, a General Practitioner in Townsville, is the winner of the 2021 Elizabeth Pinkerton Memorial Award. This award is given annually by TSA to a health professional in recognition of their efforts to improve the lives of people affected with TSC and their families in Australia. This is the first time that the award has been won by a GP.

A member of the TSC Community in Australia nominated Dr Page saying:

‘Freyja has been our primary care GP for 4 years and is recognised by Queensland Health as Townsville (and North Queensland’s) only expert in TSC. Freyja took over my daughter’s complex medical situation before she was diagnosed with TSC. It was through her dedication and expertise that we were able to identify and diagnose TSC. Freyja took time out of her own life to learn about TSC with the express desire to be able to treat and manage our daughter in our home town.

Freyja now leads a team of health care professionals, specialists and allied health carers to ensure our daughter gets the care she needs and doesn’t have to travel to Brisbane some 2,000 kilometres away. She has trained health professionals and provided advice and advocated for our daughter over the last 4 years through a difficult diagnosis process and created a management plan based on World’s Best Practice.

Living in Regional Queensland we do not have the available access to specialist care of capital cities. Our daughter’s complex health means air travel on a regular basis to Brisbane is not feasible and as a family we struggle with the costs associated with her care. Freyja has always found a solution and helped us access what we need here and most certainly during a pandemic when leaving town wasn’t an option. Regional and rural medicine need more doctors like Freyja and I feel that she is the perfect example of a doctor going beyond her job description to care for her patients.’