Plastic surgeon

To Australia she’s a national treasure, to her patients she’s often their only hope and to those closest to her she’s a friend, a wife, a confidant and a mum. The life of Dr Fiona Wood is truly extraordinary, as Linda Peatling discovered recently.

Spend a day with Fiona Wood and it’s not hard to see how this Yorkshire lass became our Australian of the Year. Down-to-earth, comical and unashamedly real, this welcoming, caring woman has an invincible spirit that washes over everything she does and everyone she meets. It’s a spirit that has seen her save the lives of countless burn victims, develop world-renowned medical breakthroughs and achieve what she considers to be the highlight of her life – raising a family of six children with her husband Tony Kierath. I joined Dr Wood at 9.30am, a totally respectable hour in the world of a freelance journalist, but she had already been up for four and a half hours, beginning her day at 5am with her regular 30 kilometre bicycle ride…

5am: Fiona’s ride takes her from her home in City Beach, Perth, along the Swan River and back again. A friend or some of her children will often join her but sometimes she rides alone. “It clears my head and wakes me up,” she says. Fiona took up cycling two years ago to help her eldest son Tom (19) and her third son Joe (14) train for triathlons – she subsequently fell in love with the sport. “I’ve always been into exercise. I wanted to be a runner when I was younger but my knees gave out so cycling is the best thing I can do,” she says. “The boys are much, much better than me but I get there in the end.”
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6.30am: Fiona arrives back home, where she jumps in the shower then heads into the kitchen for breakfast. Her children range in age from 11 through to 19 so everyone usually prepares their own breakfast. Fiona tends to grab a coffee and a muffin or piece of toast to eat in the car on the way to work. Meanwhile, Tony takes the four youngest kids to school. Fiona opts for the family’s eight-seater people mover, complete with crumbs, items of clothing, drink bottles and a certain je ne sais quoi that hints at the recent presence of teenagers.

7.30am: Reaching work at the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children or the Royal Perth Hospital Burns Unit, Fiona hits the ground running. She sometimes gets to pick up a coffee before dropping in to her simple, unassuming office, neatly packed to the brim with about 150 folders, five filing cabinets and numerous reference material on a variety of topics relating to burns. Usually, however, she’s on the move, rushing from one appointment to the other. She’s a consummate multi-tasker, handling each appointment or request with calm focus, precision, efficiency and more than a little help from her PA, Debbie Somers. “I’ve known Debbie since our kids were at kindergarten together and she’s a great friend and a great support. She helps to sort me out. I don’t know what I’d do without her,” Fiona reflects.
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