Bruce Connolly
Associate professor Bruce W Conolly undertook regular visits to Myanmar from 2000 onwards. A/Prof Conolly worked diligently with the Myanmar Medical Association and the Myanmar Orthopaedic Society, and his dedication to his Myanmar patients was abundantly clear to all.
In 2013 following his retirement, Associate Professor Bruce Connolly and his wife Dr Joyce Conolly set up the Myanmar Australia Conolly Foundation as a humanitarian organisation with the aim of improving medical education in Myanmar. Associate Professor Bruce Connolly AM was recognised for his service to the community and for the establishment of the Sydney Hospital hand unit with the Order of Australia (AM) in 1994.
The importance of supporting family is highlighted with Dr Joyce Connolly. In the 1970s Joyce joined Bruce with volunteer work in a Thailand leprosy clinic and in the following decades has continued to assist in the health outcomes of underprivileged people in South-East Asia and in Australia where for a time she worked in indigenous health.
When the Rotary Club of Mosman asked Bruce to extend the Hand Surgery training project from Vietnam to Myanmar, Joyce became his strongest ally and quickly found many pressing needs. Joyce initially worked in HIV Aids, but then developed her own forte when she saw the need of teaching basic health care to rural and village areas of Myanmar where there is little or no medical care available.
Dr Joyce and Bruce Conolly assessing and caring for patients with hand disorders. Together they achieved so much!
