14-05-2025
Cancer patient Dr Natalie Gordon becomes a doctor after her second chance at life inspired her to pursue a career in medicine
At 42-years-old, Dr Natalie Gordon is one of the newest interns to join the team at Broken Hill Base Hospital after packing up her bags to move 917km to NSW's far west, but she is no stranger to hospital halls.
A cancer diagnosis propelled her on a new path or as she like to call it, 'Life 2.0'.
In 2014 - eighteen years into her teaching career - Dr Gordon was feeling 'exhausted'.
'I noticed I had put on a lot of weight, and I kept getting really breathless,' she told Sky News.
'I worked at a private school so they had a doctor who would come in to see the boarders who I would visit as well but they could figure out what was going on.
'I just kept going back and towards the end I thought I was going crazy.'
On the June long weekend her condition escalated.
'I got really sick to the point I couldn't eat so I took myself to hospital,' she said.
'I ended up having my appendix out, but even then, they still missed the larger part of the story.
'Six weeks later I was teaching again, and I knew something wasn't right.
'I eventually had a colonoscopy and a gastroscopy, and they told me I had cancer.'
She was diagnosed with lynch syndrome, a genetic disorder which increases the risk of developing certain cancers - in Dr Gordon's case it was duodenal cancer.
'In that moment my mum was so wise, she said we don't want to know the prognosis,' Dr Gordon said.
'The surgeon said in my opinion you're 100 per cent alive or you're 100 per cent dead, that's just how it is.
'I had a whipple surgery, it was a very serious surgery, it is over six hours and for most people who get it survivorship is difficult.'
Though Dr Gordon will never say she is cancer free, her health is now back on track.
It's her hospital experience that sticks with her the most.
'I do worry that I was a bit disregarded, not only was I a young woman who should be well but also, I am an Indigenous woman, so I had a few things going against me,' she said.
'I think women aren't listened to in medicine and that's not anyone's fault it's just the way medicine is taught.'
Determined to change that experience for others she sat the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test – and she passed.
'I didn't think I would pass but I though why not give it a go,' she said.
'I had this sense teaching wasn't for me anymore so if I didn't pass I was going to become a pilates instructor.'
By no means did Dr Gordon find her studies at Australian National University easy, she even failed her first year, but she 'thought people in hospital deserve someone who is going to listen and love them despite what is in front of them'.
'When I was in my country hometown (Goulburn) I thought they don't need people blowing in then blowing out,' she said.
'There is not enough consistency in towns that need doctors like that.
'So I would like to become a rural generalist and hopefully give back to my home community.'
Dr Gordon deals with constant reminders of her cancer journey now she is five months into her time at Broken Hill.
'I am deeply grateful mentally to have had the life experience of knowing how hard it is for patients,' she said.
'When I have to work with them every day I understand what it feels like to not be heard by a doctor, to not be clear about your own health, to not have autonomy over your own body.'
