The Weary Dunlop-Boonpong Exchange Fellowship

A press release

Three former POWs today met the 58th young Thai surgeon to have studied advanced surgical techniques in Australia since they established the Weary Dunlop-Boonpong Exchange Fellowship in Perth nearly 20 years ago.

Chanmong Chirawichada has been studying cranio-facial surgery at the Princss Margaret Hospital with Dr. David Gillett as his mentor.

Keith Flanagan, Bill Haskell and Ken Wood and others initiated the exchange at a Perth fund-raising dinner in 1986 with Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop as guest of honour.

Keith Flanagan, the initial executive officer of the exchange, said today that Boonpong Sirivejaphan had been a Thai trader who had risked torture and death to smuggle money and medicines into prison camps on the Burma-Thailand railway.

His name had been linked with that of Weary Dunlop because "they represented what was finest in the human spirit in the face of adversity".

The fellowship had been a brilliant success with $525,000 now in the fund and four new Fellows coming down each year to work with an Australian mentor for four to five months
In addition to Chanmong Chirawichada three other Fellows are training in Sydney hospitals this year. Next year one of the four Fellows will spend 12 months with the Brisbane liver unit and start a liver transplant service in Thailand on his return
Professor Bruce Barraclough, of Sydney's North Shore Hospital, organises the Australian side of the exchange in which Australian surgeons provide education opportunities and experience as voluntary mentors.

"I get very positive feedback from mentors and Fellows on the value of the exchange fellowships", Professor Barraclough said.

"One exchange Fellow, after trauma surgery experience in Australia, convinced his provincial leaders to legislate for motorcyclists to wear helmets. He was able to show in a short period of time that there had been a significant reduction in admissions for head injuries".

Professor Barraclough's father, Major Rupert Barraclough, had also worked on the Burma-Thailand railway as a POW. At the war's end he had organised transport for former POWs at the same time that Weary looked after the medical side. They shared the same billet and were the last two officers to leave Bangkok.

For further information contact

Keith Flanagan

(Initial Exchange Executive Officer)

Tel/Fax (o8) 9299 6351

Email: quietlion@bigpond.com