Frederick Cossom Hollows AC (1929 - 1993)

Born 9 Apr 1929 in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand

Ancestors

Husband of Joan Mary (Skiller) Hollows — married 1958 in New Zealand [uncertain]

Died 10 Feb 1993 at age 63 in Randwick, New South Wales, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Gavan Dunn [send private message]

Biography

Frederick Hollows AC is Notable.

Frederick Hollows AC was an opthalmologist.

Professor Frederick Cossom Hollows AC was a New Zealand-born ophthalmologist who became known for his work in restoring eyesight for thousands of people living in poverty in Australia and many other countries.^[1] It is estimated that more than two and one half million people in the world can see today because of initiatives instigated by him.^[2]

Early Life

Born in 1929 in Dunedin, New Zealand, Fred was the second of four sons born to Joseph Hollows, a railway engine driver, later nurseryman, and Clarice Marshall. Fred's parents were practising Christians, and his father had a strong social conscience, which provided a great influence in Fred's life. Fred's early years were spent living through the Great Depression, where he saw the effects of poverty and was reminded of his own family's privilege as his father remained employed at this time.^[3]

Fred spent his youth in the Boys' Brigade, played the trumpet, went camping and played rugby.^[4] As a young man he pursued mountaineering, an interest he maintained for most of his life.^[5]

After completing one year in a Bible college preparing to become a minister, Fred took a vacation job as an attendant at a mental hospital, which changed his mind, and he returned as an agnostic, with a desire to study psychology. He changed his program to study psychology, without realising at the time that it was also a medical intermediate. When he finished in the top 100 students in the country, he was invited to attend the University of Otago Medical School.^[6]

Career

With a belief that the basic attribute of mankind is to look after each other,^[7] Fred became interested in practising medicine in Africa, where there was a need for properly run clinics, free from political or church influence. He was also informed that to be useful, a surgeon needed to know how to remove a cataract, as there was a lot of cataract-caused blindness. With this in mind, he commenced working with an eye surgeon in Tauranga, and later undertook his opthalmologic residency in Wellington. It was here that Fred also joined the Communist Party, and remained a member during the 1950s and 1960s.^[8]

In 1961 Fred went to England to complete a Diploma in Opthalmology (DO) at the Institute of Opthalmology in Judd Street, North London, where he was the co-winner of the Moorfields Junior Prize, awarded to the top candidate in the DO examinations.^[9]

After working as an opthalmologic registrar at the Royal Infirmary in Cardiff, and with epidemiologist Archie Cochrane, with whom he performed a glaucoma survey of the Welsh population,^[10] Fred accepted a position as Associate Professor with the Department of Opthalmology at the University of New South Wales in Australia in 1965. Until 1992, he chaired the ophthalmology division overseeing the teaching departments at the University of New South Wales, and the Prince of Wales and Prince Henry hospitals.

Fred's attendance in 1968 at a presentation by author Frank Hardy led to a most fortunate outcome for many of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Hardy brought the plight of Aboriginal Australians to international attention with the recent publication of his book, The Unlucky Australians, written about the Gurindji Strike. After making a donation, Fred was approached to examine two Gurindji men, both of whom had poor eyesight. This was the first time Labrador keratopathy was detected in Australia. He visited the Gurindji camp and examined the inhabitants, where he diagnosed several cases of the condition. In addition, there were many cases of cataracts, advanced trachoma and other eye diseases that were blinding the Gurindji people. There Fred witnessed eye diseases of a kind and degree that had not been seen in western society for generations. He was appalled by the neglect, the suffering and wasted quality of human life due to curable diseases. When he tried to obtain help for the Gurindji, the Northern Territory government attempted to force the Gurindji back to work in poor conditions, in return for medical services.^[11]

Fred was invited to the Redfern Aboriginal Legal Service, where he learned of further medical neglect of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. They were not welcome in doctors' surgeries, they were pushed to the back of the line in Casualty wards and public health clinics. Within ten days, a group led by Mum Shirl, which included Fred and other medical officers, helped to set up the Aboriginal Medical Service, plundering equipment and pharmaceuticals from the Prince of Wales Hospital. By the time of Fred's death, more than 60 of these medical services existed across Australia, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are used to staff and manage them wherever possible.^[12]

Areas serviced by the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program

Examination of the residents of Aboriginal communities in New South Wales revealed undiagnosed trachoma in large numbers. When trips to South Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory to examine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people indicated that a nation-wide strategy was required, Fred and his team embarked on a mission to eliminate trachomatous blindness from Australia, and establish ongoing eye care in rural areas, with the implementation of the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program. Due to improved living conditions, trachoma had disappeared from the white population several decades earlier. The Aboriginal groups suffering from a variety of eye diseases were outside of any effective Australian health system, and most of the problems encountered were due to poor standards of hygiene, crowded living, substandard housing, ignorance concerning health matters and alcohol abuse. However, it wasn't until the 1970s that attitudes towards Aboriginal people improved enough to provide an opportunity for a program of this magnitude to be accepted. Over a two year period Fred's team visited 465 Aboriginal settlements, performed 105,000 examinations, performed 1,000 surgical operations, treated 27,000 people for trachoma, and delivered 10,000 pairs of individually prescribed spectacles.^[13][14]

Reaching the end of his patience with the ongoing political interference that impeded his efforts to help the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Fred challenged Malcolm Fraser's Government, in particular Peter Baume, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, who was himself a qualified gastroenterologist.

"As a white doctor and a man with a conscience, I cannot understand how men in authority can stand by and watch the appalling state of Aboriginal health problems which would cause a huge outcry if they occurred in the white community."

The resulting publicity secured a meeting with Fraser, who promised to allocate $50 million over the next ten years to Aboriginal public health.^[15] Interestingly, Peter Baume authored Fred's biography for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.^[16]

Basic structure of the eye

Fred then turned his attention to eye health in developing countries, such as Mexico, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, Vietnam and Eritrea.^[17] He assisted in the training of eye surgeons and raising funds for much needed equipment.^[18] He also helped to establish an intra-ocular lens factory in Eritrea. In Australia, these little pieces of plastic cost $140, which made them unaffordable in many African nations, where cheaper and less effective treatments were used. They could be made for one tenth of the price in Eritrea. Not only did this assist Eritreans, but the lenses could also be exported to other Third World countries at an affordable price. To treat cataracts, the patient's cloudy lens is removed and replaced with the plastic lens, providing instant restoration of sight.^[19]

The Fred Hollows Foundation

The Fred Hollows Foundation is a non-profit aid organisation based in Sydney, Australia, which was founded by Fred in 1992. The Foundation focuses on treating and preventing blindness and other vision problems. It operates in Australia, South East Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and has restored sight to over two and a half million people.^[2] Over 750 local eye surgeons have been trained.^[20]

Awards & Honours

Fred received a number of awards and honours for his selfless dedication to humanitarian work.^[20]

1981 - Advance Australia Award for Aboriginal eye care

1985 - Awarded Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) (honorary, as Fred was not yet an Australian citizen), for service in the field of health, particularly concerning Aborigines.^[21]

1990 - Human Rights Medal

1990 - Australian of the Year^[22]

1990 - Advance Australia Award for Medicine and Overseas Aid

1991 - Humanist of the Year

1991 - Awarded Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, University of New South Wales

1991 - Appointed Companion General Division of the Order of Australia (AC), for service in public health in Australia and abroad.^[23]

1991 - Received Degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa at Macquarie University

1991 - Admitted as Doctor of Medicine honoris causa at the University of New South Wales

1991 - Named Eritrea’s first honorary citizen

1992 - Awarded an honorary doctorate by the Queensland University of Technology

1993 - Presented with The Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists Medal for his years of distinguished meritorious and selfless service by fellow ophthalmologists the evening before he died.

1993 - Albert Schweitzer Award of Distinction Chapman University USA

1993 - Honoured posthumously by Rotary and Lions Clubs, by naming Fred a Paul Harris Fellow and a Melvin Jones Fellow respectively

1993 - Voted one of New Zealand’s Top 100 History Makers

Videos

One Man's Vision

They used to call it Sandy Blight

Marriage & Family

Fred met his first wife, Mary Skiller, when working as a tour guide at the end of his third year of medical school and they married in 1958. They spent almost 20 years together before the marriage ended. The couple had one daughter and Mary died in South Africa in 1975. Fred and Mary also fostered two children.^[24]

Following the break up of his marriage to Mary, Fred lived with Tracey Ellison for a time, and they had one son.^[25]

Fred met Gabrielle (Gabi) O'Sullivan when she studied orthoptics. Later, as the senior orthoptist at the Prince of Wales Hospital, she was invited to accompany Fred to rural communities, working on the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program. This was the start of their relationship. They married in 1980, at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Randwick, and had four daughters and one son.^[26][16]

Farnham House

Of the opinion that the best kind of living arrangement was not the small, nuclear family, Fred purchased a large, dilapidated Victorian sandstone house in Sydney's Randwick after his marriage to Mary ended. Here at Farnham House he and Gabi raised their family, and shared their home with others in need.^[27]

Death & Burial

Fred was diagnosed with metastatic renal cancer in 1989, and continued to work when gravely ill, travelling to Eritrea and Vietnam, training local surgeons, treating patients and fundraising to purchase medical equipment and establish intra-ocular lens manufacturing facilities.^[28]

He died at his home, Farnham House, on 10 February 1993, and was honoured with a state funeral at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney. Fred was interred in the Bourke Cemetery, in northern New South Wales, in the country that he loved, and where a large black granite sculpture sits on top of his final resting place.^[16][29]

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Fred Hollows," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fred_Hollows&oldid=1016435159 (accessed April 22, 2021).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Wikipedia contributors, "The Fred Hollows Foundation," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Fred_Hollows_Foundation&oldid=1010923374 (accessed April 24, 2021).
3. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 1.
4. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 1.
5. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 2.
6. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 2.
7. ↑ About Fred (The Fred Hollows Foundation, https://www.hollows.org/au/about-fred : accessed 24 Apr 2021)
8. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapters 4-5.
9. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapters 4-6.
10. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 7.
11. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 8.
12. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 10.
13. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 14.
14. ↑ The National Trachoma Program (The Fred Hollows Foundation, https://www.hollows.org/au/what-we-do/indigenous-australia/trachoma-program : accessed 25 Apr 2021
15. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 14.
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1 16.2} Peter Baume, 'Hollows, Frederick Cossom (Fred) (1929–1993)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hollows-frederick-cossom-fred-25508/text33855, published online 2017, accessed online 22 April 2021.
17. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 18.
18. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 20.
19. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 22.
20. ↑ ^{20.0 20.1} Fred Hollows (The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ, archived at Wayback Machine 23 Oct 2013, retrieved 22 Apr 2021)
21. ↑ Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Government of Australia. (Australian Honours Search Facility, https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/872496 : accessed 25 Apr 2021) Officer of the Order of Australia award granted to Professor Frederick Cossom Hollows, 17 May 1985.
22. ↑ Professor Fred Hollows AC - In Memoriam (Australian of the Year Awards, https://www.australianoftheyear.org.au/recipients/fred-hollows/94/ : accessed 25 Apr 2021)
23. ↑ Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Government of Australia. (Australian Honours Search Facility, https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/883406 : accessed 25 Apr 2021) Officer of the Order of Australia award granted to Associate Professor Frederick Cossom Hollows, 10 Jun 1991.
24. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapters 3 & 7.
25. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 14.
26. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 14.
27. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 16.
28. ↑ Hollows, Fred, Chapter 24.
29. ↑ Fred Hollows. (Monument Australia, https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/humanitarian/display/20485-fred-hollows : accessed 25 Apr 2021)

• Hollows, Fred & Corris, Peter. Fred Hollows: The Updated Autobiography. Kerr Publishing. 2019. ISBN 978-0-9581283-7-7.