As a haematologist, a great part of my working career was involved in the care of people with bleeding disorders and especially those with haemophilia A and B. These inherited conditions vary in their severity but can seriously and painfully control the lives of these people. Many have disabling joints and musculoskeletal problems. We endeavoured to develop blood donor derived products to prevent bleeding whilst working with the Australian Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service and Governments to provide adequate quantities of the necessary products.

Whilst pursuing the notion of donor derived products, the advent of HIV infection in Australia in the early 1980s and its transmission from donor derived blood products to people with haemophilia was a cruel, devastating and often fatal blow. Medical therapy for HIV infection and very careful screening of blood donors to modify progress of HIV infection has helped.

More recently, progress and scientific research towards the development of recombinant products for current therapy has changed the therapeutic scenario. My efforts for haemophilia care have been on a state and national scale. And fortunately, with the support of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, my efforts have also been on an international scale especially in Asia under the auspices of the Canadian based World Federation of Haemophilia. All these developments, setbacks and progress in the care of people with haemophilia have deeply affected me as a physician.

As an aspiring postgraduate in medicine, close contact with four Fellows of the College has been a source of great inspiration and confidence in those earlier years. These Fellows were Dr Maurice Clarke (CBE), Professor Albert Baikie, Professor Bob Pitney (AO), and Professor Carl de Gruchy.

Maurice Clarke was the doyen of the physician/cardiologist. Calm, considerate and caring he taught me much about general medicine. Maurice had an outstanding intellect and fascinating background. He was one of nature’s gentlemen and an inspiration.

Professor Albert Baikie came to Melbourne from the MRC Group in Edinburgh. His stimulating and Scottish presence in his new environment was challenging in what had been a regular environment. He taught me much whilst his continuing encouragement to pursue postgraduate haematology abroad was life changing.

Professor Bob Pitney was another brilliant man to whom I am eternally grateful. He was incisive, a clear thinker, a brilliant teacher but a most humble, practical, no-nonsense man. He taught me much about clinical and laboratory haematology.

The fourth man was Professor Carl de Gruchy, an eminent Australian haematologist of international fame. I was privileged to work with him over three separate years as a senior resident in his professorial medical unit, as third assistant in his Department of Medicine at St Vincent’s and then as acting haematologist at St Vincent’s Hospital. In all this time, he was challenging and learned. It was he who really stimulated me in the direction of haematology. Tragically, his life was cut short whilst in his prime.

There is another person with whom I had close contact during those formative years and that was Dr Fred Stohlman Jr. He was an MD and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University, in Boston, Massachusetts USA. He was brilliant, kind and an intellectual giant of American haematology. Again, his life was tragically cut short when he and his wife, Bernadette were killed in a terrorist aircraft bombing. This explosion was felt in my heart several thousand miles away.

A salutary experience for me with the RACP was passing the MRACP examination in Melbourne in May 1964. I have a strong recollection of sitting the written papers at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and subsequently taking the clinical examinations. The generous patients who volunteered to be examined are vivid memories. The formidable and outstanding Fellows who were examiners loom large in my memory. These were Sir William Morrow, Dr S Goulston, Dr J Frew, Dr M Clarke, Dr W King, Dr M Bonnin and Dr A McGuiness.

Then came the great thrill of being invited to the final viva voce examination at the RACS building in East Melbourne. A most pleasant interlude was enjoyed with the examiners. Thereafter, as an immensely proud MRACP, my confidence was boosted and life certainly changed. Dr M Clarke told me I held a most valuable medical qualification in Australia. He affirmed ‘you must continue to learn, and you will be judged by your opinions’.

Biography

Kevin Rickard matriculated with honours in Melbourne in 1953 then commenced the medical course at Melbourne University in 1954. Kevin had attended Christian Brothers College at Victoria Parade in East Melbourne where he was School Prefect, Cadet under Officer, House Captain and Captain of the First XVIII. Whilst at university he played amateur football (VAFA) with the Old Paradians. He was a member and Best and Fairest in their 1958 Premiership Team.

He graduated MBBS from the University of Melbourne in 1959. In the earlier years of the course, he was an Honours student in anatomy, physiology and biochemistry and a prosector in anatomy. The immediate postgraduate years were at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne as resident, registrar in pathology, haematology and medicine (Dr MV Clarke) then third assistant in the Department of Medicine (Professors G De Gruchy and AG Baikie) and tutor in Medicine at Newman College. Following this, he was Senior Registrar in Haematology at Prince Henry and Prince of Wales Hospitals (Professor WR Pitney, AO) in Sydney. He was then Haematology Registrar at Hammersmith Hospital and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London with Professor Sir JV Dacie, FRS.

Proceeding to Boston, Massachusetts, USA, he was a Leukemia Society of America Research Fellow in Haematology with Dr F Stohlman, MD, at Tufts University School of Medicine in the Research Department of St Elizabeth’s Hospital, Boston. The group at St Elizabeth’s were internationally recognised for their studies in experimental haematology and cell biology. Collateral evidence was produced which assisted in the discovery of erythropoietin and the later success of bone marrow transplantation. Here he was involved in seminal work on haemopoiesis with Dr Stohlman and Dr A Morley. Research emphasis was on stem cell kinetics and haemopoietic control mechanisms using mice and tissue culture models. In this work, the notion of a committed haemopoietic stem cell was espoused. After Boston there was further time in the UK with haematologists in Oxford, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

He was appointed Staff Specialist in Haematology at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) in 1970. There he worked closely with Professor CRB Blackburn AC, in the Department of Medicine and Dr Harry Kronenberg AM, in haematology. At Prince Alfred Hospital, he was appointed Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine at Sydney University. He remained at RPAH for the next 35 years.

At RPAH, he was Director of the Haemophilia Centre and pursued the total welfare of people with haemophilia regarding their medical and surgical management. In doing this, he worked closely with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) to achieve adequate blood donor derived therapeutic products for the clinical care of people with haemophilia.

The Haemophilia Centre at RPAH became the first International Haemophilia Training Centre of the World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH) in the southern hemisphere. Kevin became Chairman of the World Federation of Haemophilia’s worldwide International Haemophilia Training Centres and Vice President of the World Federation of Haemophilia based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In these roles, Kevin participated and was responsible for many WFH workshops on haemophilia throughout Asia including China, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

He is currently Patron of the Haemophilia Foundation of NSW. At the invitation of the Prime Minister and Minister of Health, Kevin was a member of the Flood Committee which produced a seminal report on Australia’s Plasma Fractionation arrangements in 2006.

Kevin was President of the Haematology Society of Australia from 1981-1983 and President of the Australian Society of Blood Transfusion from 1976-1978. He was Secretary General of the ISH-ISBT meeting in Sydney in 1986. He was Chairman of the Medical Board at RPAH in 1998-1999.

He is Honorary Consultant in Haematology at RPAH. He was awarded the International Heath Care Award of the World Federation of Haemophilia at their Melbourne Conference of WFH in 2014. He was made a member of the Old Paradians’ Hall of Fame in 2013.

Kevin was a member of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Reserve for 36 years rising to the rank of Surgeon Captain. He was Consultant in Haematology to the RAN, Consultant to the Surgeon General, ADF and Consultant in Haematology and Blood Transfusion to the ADF. He was awarded the Reserve Force Decoration (RFD) by the Governor General in 1980 and a Vice Admiral Chief of Navy Commendation in 1997. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1998 for Services to Medicine, Haematology and the Australian Defence Force. Kevin is author or co-author of approximately 300 papers, abstracts, book chapters and reviews on a wide variety of topics relating to haematology, haemostasis, blood transfusion and military medicine.

Kevin has been married for 56 years to Elaine, a counsellor and social worker. They have three children, Justin, Jane and Matthew who are respectively lawyer, teacher and surgeon. They have ten grandchildren.