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I had two older brothers and eventually got a younger sister. I grew up in Yorkshire, England where my parents still live and I went to the local school initially.<br> <table class="tab"> <tr> <td style="width: 183px; text-align: justify;" valign="top"> <img src="../pics/Fiona 3 kids (Norm).jpg" border="0" alt="P.A.R.T.Y." style="width: 290px; height: 200px" id="IMG1"></td> <td style="width: 228px"> <img src="../pics/fiona looking out on bridge.jpg" border="0" alt="P.A.R.T.Y." style="width: 290px; height: 200px" id="IMG2"></td> </tr> </table> My mother worked in a Quaker school and I was able to go there as a staff child when I was 13. I was there for five years. <br><br> It was a pivotal time in my life because I was able to achieve more than I if I'd stayed in the Comprehensive School System that did not go past GCE (university entrance exams) level <br><br> Numbers were my game from a very early stage. I was fascinated by maths and physics. <br><br> When I was 16 I was interested in doing maths and physics at uni but my brother and my mother thought medicine would be better. <br><br> My mother said if you're a doctor you will always have a job and be financially independent of the male! I heard that many times. <br><br> Fiona trained as a doctor at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London. <br><br> ``I always I always had part time jobs. We had our fees and books paid and a living allowance but it was never quite enough so we always worked. <br><br> She married an Australian surgeon working in the UK and with their two children, migrated to sunny Australia in 1987. <br><br>  I was overwhelmed by the sunniness & coming from the frozen north when it's grey one day and grey the next and dark the next day& is there a sun??? <br><br>  We'd arrived in the middle of the night and I remember waking my husband up the next morning at five o'clock and saying,  hey wake up, we're going for a walk and he said  why? And I said  cos the sun's shining!' And he groaned and said,  it will be for the next 365 days! <br><br> Fiona insists any of her success is down to team work. Fiona's greatest challenge outside her ground-breaking scientific research, is motherhood. <br><br>  Having your first child is the biggest life change. You can't really prepare for that. <br><br> Fiona Wood has two recurring characteristics - genuine humility and a relentless positive attitude. <br><br>  I've got a lot of energy. My daily routine starts at 5am and often I go to bed at midnight. <br><br> Through her enthusiasm, innovation and vision, Fiona has saved and improved countless people's lives. She is an inspiration. <br><br> <table class="tab"> <tr> <td style="width: 183px; text-align: justify;" valign="top"> <img src="../pics/Fiona in theatre wide shot.jpg" border="0" alt="P.A.R.T.Y." style="width: 310px; height: 200px" id="IMG3"></td> </table> <strong> On working with burns victims: <br> </strong> <br> Even relatively small burns can be extraordinarily devastating from a psychological, as well as physical point of view <br><br> ``Burns are devastating. It is a life-defining point. You lay in that bed hour after hour in pain. <br><br>  We try very hard to give the best possible care. <br><br> Peter Hughes, survivor of the October 2002 Bali bombing says: <br><br>  When I woke up, I just couldn't believe it. I thought  no human being should go through this I screamed and cried& ' <br><br> Fiona says we do positive things to reduce the time that burn patients have to suffer. <br><br>  We try and get the healing process working as soon as possible. The sooner we can the less trauma and the better the recovery. <br><br> <strong> Spray-on skin: <br> </strong> <br>  We've been working on spray-on skin cells since the early 1990's. We take a little bit of skin from a normal area, skin that knows how to replace itself and knows how to repair without a scar. <br><br>  We take the sample of healthy cells and feed them for five days in a tissue culture flask. <br><br>  Then we spray them onto the body and the body is then the tissue culture flask. <br><br>  If we can reduce the number of operations& we reduce the pain and suffering that's associated with it and also reduce the scarring. <br><br>  Speed of healing is very important for scarring. <br><br> Previous techniques of skin cell culturing required 21 days but Fiona and her team have reduced that period to five days. <br><br> Fiona has found that scarring is greatly reduced if replacement skin can be provided within 10 days. Fiona's holy grail is scarless healing.  The quality of the outcome must be worth the pain of survival. <br><br> <strong> On being Australian of the Year 2005: </strong> </p> <p class="main">  I am proud to be an Australian and will work towards a society dependent on the integrity of each and everyone one of us. </p> <!-- End main page content --> <!-- DO NOT ALTER BELOW THIS POINT! --> <br><br> </td></tr></table> <div class="disclaimer" align="center"> <hr size="1" color="#BD2911" width="40%"> <br> &copy; Royal Perth Hospital, 2006<br> All rights reserved.<br><br> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="50%"> <tr> <td width="33%" valign="middle" align="center"><a href="../disclaimer.html" title="Disclaimer">Disclaimer</a></td> <td width="34%" valign="middle" align="center"><a href="../copyright.html" title="Copyright">Copyright</a></td> <td width="33%" valign="middle" align="center"><a href="../privacy.html" title="Privacy">Privacy</a></td> </tr></table> <br><br> </div> </body> </html>