Person

Hollows, Frederick Cossom (Fred) (1929 - 1993)

AC FRCS

Born
9 April 1929
Dunedin, New Zealand
Died
10 February 1993
Randwick, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Ophthalmologist
Alternative Names
  • Hollows, Fred (Also known as)
Website
http://www.hollows.org/AboutFred/

Summary

Fred Hollows worked as a clinician in New Zealand for several years before specializing in ophthalmology. He moved to Australia in 1965 when appointed Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of New South Wales. Throughout his career Fred Hollows was heavily involved in improving the health of Australia's indigenous and rural people. He helped establish the Aboriginal Medical Service and The National Trachoma and Eye Health Program. Hollows was also instrumental in reducing the cost of eye care in developing countries by setting up intraocular lens factories in Nepal and Eritrea. The Fred Hollows Foundation continues to support these and other projects.

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Details

After completing a Bachelor of Arts, Fred Hollows turned his attentions to the priesthood. He took up ecclesiastical studies in 1950, but after one year decided to withdraw. The next year Hollows began a medical degree in Dunedin, New Zealand and in 1961 specialized in ophthalmology. In 1965 he was appointed Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of New South Wales. During his tenure at the University he became aware of the impact of trachoma (eye disease, leading to blindness, caused by Chlamydia trachomatis) on Australia's rural and Aboriginal populations. Because Australia is the only developed country in the world where this disease still exists, Hollows fought hard to establish a national treatment program. In 1975 the Federal Government and Australian College of Ophthalmologists set up the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program and appointed Hollows as its Chairman. Over a three year period this program screened 100, 000 Australians.

In 1985 Fred Hollows was awarded the Order of Australia but refused to accept it in protest to the poor state of Aboriginal Health. Hollows was also a consultant for the World Health organization and visited many third world countries. He recognised that most blindness disorders in these countries were due to the lack of basic medical treatment, and therefore preventable. Cataracts were the commonest problem in these countries. But the high price of surgery and replacement lenses (the intraocular lens) meant treatment was not an option for most people. Hollows raised money to establish Intraocular lens factories in Nepal and Eritrea to dramatically reduce this cost ( by around 70%). In 1992 he established The Fred Hollows Foundation which continues to support expansion of these and other projects. Fred Hollows died of cancer in Sydney on 10 February 1993.

Chronology

1946 - 1949
Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand
1950
Education - Ecclesiastical studies at the Glenleith Bible College in Dunedin, New Zealand
1951 - 1955
Education - Bachelor of Medicine (MB), University of Otago in Dunedin
1955 - 1956
Career position - Medical Intern at the Wellington Hospital
1957 - 1960
Career position - House Surgeon, Auckland Hospital
1961
Education - Ophthalmology studies at Moorfields in the UK
1961 - 1964
Career position - Ophthalmic Registrar in Cardiff, Wales
1965 - 1992
Career position - Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, University of New South Wales
1965 - 1992
Career position - Chair, Division of Ophthalmology, Prince of Wales Hospital, University of New South Wales
1970
Career position - Treatment of indigenous patients in Bourke, NSW
1971
Career position - First Aboriginal medical centre in Redfern, NSW
1973
Career position - Worked in South Australia
1975
Career position - Director of the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program (NTEHP)
1981
Career position - Resigned from NTEHP
1985?
Career position - Consultant to the World Health Organization
1985
Career position - Visited Nepal, Burma, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh
1987
Career position - Visited Eritrea
1989
Life event - Naturalised as an Australian citizen
1990
Award - Australian of the Year
1990 - 1991
Career position - Visited Eritrea twice, Nepal and Vietnam
1991
Award - Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for service in public health in Australia
1991
Award - Honorary Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Science, University of New South Wales
1991
Award - DSC honoris causa, Macquarie University
1991
Award - Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary International
1992
Award - Honorary Doctorate, Queensland University of Technology
1992
Career position - The Fred Hollows Foundation established in Australia
1993
Award - Albert Schweitzer Award of Excellence, Chapman University, Orange, California, U.S.A.
1993
Award - Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists Medal
1993
Award - Rotary Award for World Understanding, Rotary International
1994
Career position - Intraocular lens laboratories established by the Foundation in Eritrea and Nepal

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Books

  • Hollows, Fred and Corris, Peter, Fred Hollows: an Autobiography (Redfern: Kerr Publishing, 2006), 291 pp. Details
  • Hollows, Frederick C.; and Corris, Peter, Fred Hollows: an Autobiography (Balmain: Kent Publishing, 1993), 269 pp. Details

Book Sections

Journal Articles

  • Briscoe, Gordon, 'Obituary for Professor Fred Cossom Hollows, 1929 - 1993', Aboriginal history, 17 (1/2) (1993), 1-3. Details
  • Middleton, C. G., 'Professor Frederick Cossom Hollows', Medical journal of Australia (1994), 140-1. Details

Resources

See also

  • Dahlitz, Ray, Secular who's who : a biographical directory of freethinkers, secularists, rationalists, humanists and others involved in Australia's secular movement from 1850 onwards (Balwyn, Victoria: R. Dahlitz, 1994), 192 pp. pp.151-152. Details

Annette Alafaci and Helen Cohn

Created: 6 January 2005, Last modified: 15 June 2022

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