Meet Kate Fessey (Pymble 2012)

I finished at Pymble in 2012 and In the years since I have had some amazing adventures. Thanks to my work, I have travelled across Australia and lived in Canberra, Darwin and more recently Alice Springs. I have also traveled through Europe, America, worked in Uganda, hiked through Patagonia and backpacked through South and Central America!

Thinking back to my time at Pymble, sport was definitely a highlight for me. I played all the sports I could fit into the year and I remember the struggle of only being able to pick one Saturday sport each term. Netball, basketball, rowing, touch football and tennis were some of my top picks. Sport is still a huge part of my life and I play competitive netball and AFL. I am very jealous that Pymble girls now get to play AFL at school!

After completing a Masters in Health Communications in 2017 at Sydney University, I landed my dream job working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) in Canberra. Since then, thanks to my work, I have had the opportunity to see much of this vast country from tiny towns on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, the heart of outback Australia, to remote islands off the coast of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

Throughout my time at the RFDS, I worked on some amazing projects to improve health outcomes for rural and remote Australians and make the RFDS service delivery more efficient. Some highlights included working on the RFDS Reconciliation Action Plan to provide better health outcomes and access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; assisting with the rollout of COVID vaccinations throughout the top end of Australia; partnering with Share the Dignity to get free menstrual products out to women in remote communities, attending the National Press Club for addresses from the Prime Minister and the Rural Health Commissioner, launching a new $1 coin and  $20 note featuring the RFDS, re-creating the first flight of the RFDS for their 90th birthday, flying in a Tiger Moth Plane across outback Queensland; taking Australian Geographic to remote communities to increase awareness of remote health issues; providing defibrillators to medical chest owners in South Australia; supporting the RFDS TV drama that aired on Channel 7 and attending the 2024 Garma Festival in east Arnhem Land.

In 2019, seeking new challenges and experiences, I took some time off for pro-bono work in rural Uganda with the School for Life Foundation. Here I saw first hand the impacts of the social determinants of health and the power of education to overcome poverty sustainably. Living as the only foreigner in a rural east African village had its challenges and I definitely developed a new appreciation for electricity and running water. However, despite the poverty, these people were some of the most generous, welcoming and resilient people I had ever met. Whilst in Uganda, I had some wild adventures including tracking mountain gorillas through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest on the border of the Congo. 

When I returned to Australia I moved to Darwin as I knew not only would the outdoor, adventure lifestyle suit me but that the health outcomes and access in some places in the Northern Territory are just as bad as third world countries. Being in Darwin not only provided me with so many work opportunities and experiences but I also got to live the most amazing lifestyle – every weekend would be spent sleeping under the stars, swimming in waterfalls, hiking to the top of mountains, and having cheeky dips in the croc-infested ocean. 

I am now based in Alice Springs working with Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation, better known as Purple House. Purple House is an innovative organisation working to get Aboriginal people with kidney failure home by providing dialysis on Country. I am proud to contribute to such important work and love the new challenge and adventure. 

Looking back, I am so grateful for the skills, experiences and network I have from my time at Pymble. My Pymble friends are still some of my best friends and even though we all ended up doing very different things all over Australia and the world, we still talk most days and catch up regularly. Even in Alice Springs I ran into a Pymble girl just last week!