Cummins GP loving fresh EP start

Now, she is the town's newest GP, having started at the Lower Eyre Family Practice in May, and already she feels like she is well and truly "at home" in the vibrant and welcoming community.

"South Africa is a beautiful country, but when it comes to crime you can only take so much," Leanne said.

"My husband (Andre) and I made the decision to move after several break-ins to our house. I was home during a smash and grab - it was very traumatic and we'd had enough."

Leanne said the birth of son Alex in 2016 was another major reason for wanting to move - her and Andre wanted to raise him in a safe environment - while racial discrimination was also a driving factor.

"I was raised colour-blind by my mother (Elma), who grew up in the Apartheid era - it doesn't matter to me where you come from or what colour your skin is, its about who you are," she said.

"I come from a coloured background and some patients would refuse to see me because I wasn't Caucasian. After a while, it taxes on you and your dignity, you question whether you're a good enough doctor.

"You can't let it affect your self-esteem, but that's much easier said than done."

Thus began the search for an international destination to call home.

"When we first saw the Cummins GP job listed, we'd never heard of Cummins but we found out it was a small town, and we loved that, because we both come from small towns in South Africa," Leanne said.

Leanne reached out to long-time Cummins GP Gerard Quigley about the position. He has provided unwavering support regarding paperwork, exams, and many other hurdles Leanne has had to work through.

"We didn't know Gerard at all, and yet he was so pivotal in getting things going, keeping things going, and mentoring me with the many exams I had to do - he was, and still is, such an enormous support, and I can't thank him enough," she said.

Despite working in the medical field in South Africa since 2005, and with more than five years of GP experience under her belt, Leanne was required to sit a number of written and clinical exams to become recognised by the Australian medical system.

Leanne failed her first major written exam, which she said was a "massive letdown", but it was an easy decision to have another go.

"Andre asked if I could do it again, I couldn't answer straightaway but the next day I said 'yes I can, we want this, let's go, let's do this," she said.

"I brushed it off, and started studying again. Next time I made it, then there was another exam, and another. But it got easier and easier, and Gerard helped me through the whole thing."

The Schroeders first visited Cummins in 2018, when Leanne was required to come to Australia to sit one of the exams.

From that first trip, they knew the Eyre Peninsula was where they wanted to be.

"We were only in Cummins for two days, but when Andre and I got here, we stood still, looked at each other and started smiling, because we felt like we were home," she said.

Leanne's final medical exam was in June last year - a clinical exam she completed via Zoom at 5am, while she was battling COVID-19.

"I felt the residual effects of Covid for about six months after diagnosis," she said.

"I wasn't hospitalised, but it was very scary."

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After passing the exam first go, completing an Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency registration application, and submitting a visa request, the move to Australia seemed fast approaching, before a spanner was thrown in the works.

"It turned out legislation had changed in terms of how you advertise a job post, and so the job had to be put back on the table and re-advertised in a few other places," Leanne said

"I was fortunate that there was still no other interest, so I got the job, and in January, my visa was approved."

Leanne, Andre and Alex left South Africa at the start of April, flying to Adelaide after a 14-hour stopover in Doha, Qatar.

While the family were excited to finally be on the way, Leanne said leaving mother Elma had been very tough.

"We had to sell our house in South Africa to pay for my exams and flights, and had lived with Mum for three years - Alex and her were very close," Leanne said.

"After a while, Mum told us not to pay her rent money, and to save it up for when we left. I refused out of principle, but the day we left, Mum deposited a lump sum of money into my account - she said it was the rent money I'd paid all those years. I was speechless. It was such a selfless thing to do, so giving, but that's who Mum is, she says to go and chase our dreams and that's what we're doing."

Quarantine for the Schroeders involved picnics on the balcony and pretending the couch was a car to keep things fun for Alex. At long last, the family arrived in Cummins on May 3.

"When we got here and walked into our house, there were books and toys on the table for Alex, and food in the fridge, I cried when we arrived. To see that, and the way we were welcomed from people who didn't know us from a bar of soap, was amazing," Leanne said.

"It was as if everything we had gone through in our lives had come full circle, it was the last piece of the puzzle for us to arrive here.

"Sometimes I still have to pinch myself to realise this has happened, we really, really wanted this."

Leanne is loving working at Lower Eyre Family Practice, and says the high number of rural GP vacancies across SA is baffling.

"I just don't get why people don't want to work here; there is so much that those towns can give, yet they are often so underrated by city people," she said.

"I'm told that a lack of access to imaging equipment and other equipment is a turn-off, but you don't need that for every patient. What you need is clinical skills and people skills, and as for medicines, this place has all the medicines it needs and more."

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