PEOPLE WHO SHAPED SMA PEOPLE WHO SHAPED SMA PETER DORNAN During these years, as the Queensland to Sporting Injuries’. Then in 1987, attention to exercise, diet and rest. Education Officer, I convened seminars with my co-author and work colleague, It meant ‘pigeon-holing’ my day, my and led teams of professionals teaching Richard Dunn, we wrote ‘Sporting week and year. Sports Medicine policies to every major Injuries’, a practical and, in that era, outback town in Queensland. the definitive teaching book which This worked well. Over the last 50 years, influenced a generation of athletes, my physiotherapy practice has evolved I have never lost my interest in Sports trainers, physiotherapists and through several re-inventions. I have Medicine and have attended every medical practitioners. morphed from Sports to Musculoskeletal Queensland AGM since inception to Men’s Health, which included (44 years) and about 45 National AGM’s. In 1984, I became a Foundation Fellow continence care, to my current The reason is simple – Sports Medicine of ASMF. special interest area of Pelvic Pain has always been at the cutting edge of (Pudendal Neuralgia). This is a condition best practise for managing athletes. These early days in Sports Medicine were which I manage with exercise and Their aggressive principles flow into exciting, intense and rewarding, however, mobilising techniques, all procedures every other aspect of medicine. Such after ten years at this hectic pace, I was which I inherited from my Sports attitudes as early, active interventions becoming jaded and run-down. I needed Medicine background. for managing injuries are still critical anda chance to reassess my life’s priorities translate to all injuries, sporting or not. and to readjust. I took six weeks off, In 1996, I had another full-stop – and It also places a strong emphasis on the travelling in a van through Europe with reassessment. I was diagnosed with importance of exercise and the need to my wife and children. On my return, prostate cancer. The consistent side pursue an active lifestyle, the prescriptionI designed a plan to develop my life effects of treatment left me seriously which positively affects quality of life on as you would a business. This included incontinent, impotent and dealing a continuum. a lifestyle of dynamic balancing. I would with psycho-social legacies, all which divide the management of my life impacted on my lifestyle. Help was My experiences led me to write one of into sections – professional, financial, difficult or non-existent. The experience the first Australian books on managing creative, social, cultural and personal. stimulated me to found the first support sports injuries (1980), ‘A Trainers Guide The ‘personal’ included appropriate group for prostate cancer in Queensland. 54 VOLUME 36 • ISSUE 2 2018