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Only 10 when his father died, Dr Hollows recalled being asked if he wanted to be an eye doctor like his dad. "I'd reply, 'I think I am going to finish school first'."

Dr Hollows initially avoided studying medicine, and became a marine biologist instead. But after he caught malaria in Papua New Guinea and saw how it ravaged young children, he retrained as a doctor.

Now 38, people still ask when he will become an ophthalmologist. "It is difficult, trying to keep up with a dead legend. I am a GP, but people still ask me if I want to be a eye doctor, and I can't think of anything more boring."

Like his older and younger sisters, Dr Hollows is also involved with the Fred Hollows Foundation to restore sight and prevent infectious diseases like trachoma that cause blindness. During the pandemic, its staff in Bangladesh and Pakistan used their knowledge of infection control to prevent the spread of COVID.

When Fred died, he received a state funeral and was buried in the bush in Bourke where he had worked every year. His wife Gabi went on to raise their five children under 10, and establish the non-profit that the couple envisaged before the ophthalmologist died.

Cam Hollows as a boy with his father Fred. Credit:Oliver Strewe

"They didn't see barriers, they saw a vision. They walked towards that, and sometimes it wasn't pretty," said the younger Dr Hollows.

Unlike most children who lose a parent and barely have a shoebox full of memories, Cam - who, like his sisters, was named by Fred in honour of left-wing revolutionaries - said he was lucky to have many photos and videos. "We have Fred's voice on tape, we also have the ongoing work of dad's that has kept the story alive, and kept the family together."

There are other reminders. Only last Thursday, a 90 year-old man walked into Dr Hollows' surgery with a photo he had taken at Fred's grave site in Bourke. Others tell him they travel to Bourke to have a whisky with Fred.

"My dad's grave is a tourist attraction," said Dr Hollows.

Now working in general practice in the Northern Rivers, Dr Hollows said he tries to live by his father's words: "I believe the basic attribute of mankind is to look after one another".

He works with a diverse range of people, from dairy farmers, who refused to seek help for broken bones, to the local Indigenous community.

Dr Hollows remembers Fred as the kind of father who took his kids camping, who thrashed him at chess, who stopped the car to force his children to climb boulders and read historical plaques, and took them out of school to travel with him.

"Fred was a carpenter, " said Dr Hollows. "He used to come home after a day of curing global blindness and would turn cedar furniture that would bring tears to your eyes."

Fred made his children a tree house that is only falling down now 30 years later. That's inspired the young Dr Hollows to make one for his two daughters, Matilda and Tabitha, with monkey bars, a swing and platform that would make any child happy.

He used to come home after a day of curing global blindness and would turn cedar furniture that would bring tears to your eyes.

Being a father is the most important thing most men can do, yet fathers - and those who fill these roles - can be torn in different directions, Dr Hollows said.

"It's tricky. In trying to look after and provide for our families, we don't necessarily get to spend as much time with our family doing the important stuff that we'd like because there's always another bill or another project.

"When dad married mum, he was quite a bit older and already had two older children, so he was able to write his own rules and spend time with us kids, get us to Nepal, get us to Bourke, build a tree house and get us down to Snowy Mountains. He was super active and engaged dad in the way many of us can't be," Cam said.

Most dads don't have the luxury of time or money to do that. Neither does Dr Hollows jnr, who is still paying off his HECS debts.

Julie Power is a senior reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.

Original post:
Fred Hollows' son Cam on fatherhood: 'It's not about blood. It's about family' - Sydney Morning Herald

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