Mercy Sister Angela Mary Doyle has been honoured for her lifetime of service to Queenslanders with Mater’s highest award, the Catherine McAuley Medallion. Source: Catholic Leader.
The award celebrates the legacy of Catherine McAuley – who founded the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin in 1831 – and is awarded to those who have made an extraordinary contribution to Mater and its mission.
The honour was announced at this year’s Mater People Awards in Brisbane on Friday, October 31.
Sr Angela Mary, who celebrated her 100th birthday in August, said she was “deeply humbled” to receive the medallion.
“To be acknowledged in Catherine’s name, a woman whose compassion and courage have guided my own life and shaped the heart of Mater, is something I will treasure always,” she said.
“I look back over 100 years with immense gratitude and with every confidence that Mater’s future will be as bright and hope-filled as its past.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to receive this beautiful acknowledgement – but, even more so, how proud I am of all of Mater’s people and to call myself a Mater person.”
Sr Angela Mary took vows with the Sisters of Mercy in her native Ireland before travelling to Brisbane in 1947 and training as a nurse at Mater in South Brisbane.
As sister administrator of Mater Mothers’ Hospital, Mater Children’s Hospital and Mater Adult Hospital, she expanded and launched new medical services for Brisbane families, such as the Mater Mothers’ neonatal critical care unit.
She was a leading campaigner for the introduction of Medibank and in the 1980s defied the Queensland government to secretly provide palliative care to Australia’s first HIV-AIDS victims.
The Catherine McAuley Medallion was the most prestigious of 17 Mater People Awards presented at the Glo House, in Brisbane’s Roma Street Parklands.
The recipients of this year’s awards for clinical excellence included Dr Martin Wood from Mater Private Hospital Brisbane, Dr Luke Reid from Mater Private Hospital Mackay, clinical nurse consultant Bronwyn Jennings from Mater Hospital Brisbane, Liji Pullookaran, project lead for clinical planning at Mater Hospital Springfield and patient care unit one team at Mater Private Hospital Redland.
Professor Aileen McGonigal from Mater Hospital Brisbane and Mater Research received the research excellence award for her translational research into epilepsy.
FULL STORY
Mater award recognises Sister Angela Mary’s life of compassion (By Joe Higgins, Catholic Leader)
