Goodbye from Ruth

After
12 years having the honour and the privilege of working for the WFSA,
the time has come for me to say ‘au revoir’.  It was an immense pleasure
meeting so many of you and to have been part of the ‘WFSA family’. I am
sure Renée will enjoy her work as much as I have.

I hope the WFSA will carry on its efforts to accomplish its mission of ‘uniting anaesthesiologists around the world for the enhancement of patient care’for many years to come.  

I send my best wishes to all of you and hope that our paths will cross again sometime, somehow, somewhere.

Ruth Hooper

Hello from Renée

My childhood was spent on a farm in the magnificent Franschhoek valley, which is about an hour’s drive outside Cape Town in the Cape Winelands, South Africa. Coincidentally,
Dr Isabeau Walker, the Chair of the WFSA Publications Committee, tells
me that Franschhoek is where her forefathers settled a few hundred years
ago when they left Europe…what a small world indeed.

After
completing school, I spent the next 10 years living in Cape Town at the
foot of Table Mountain – without a doubt the best view to wake up to
every day! But even surrounded by such splendour, I was seeking more
adventure, in 2010 I came to London and made it home. I often wonder why I chose to swap Table Mountain for sub-zero temperatures in mid-March….but then I
remember some of the great opportunities and adventures that London has offered me.

One
worth mentioning would be working for London 2012 as a volunteer
coordinator. Almost 2 years of blood, sweat and tears, but certainly one
of the most rewarding experiences I have had to date! I got to meet and
interact with people from different countries and cultures, with
different attitudes, views and levels of accomplishment – which for me
made it so much more a richer experience, witnessing how all
these different people came together with one goal in mind: to make it
the best Games yet! Not to mention the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ aspect and
‘feel-good’ factor at seeing it all come together.

Thank you
kindly for all the warm welcomes I have received thus far, I have some
very big shoes to fill but I will try my best to be a good successor to
Ruth!
I look forward to meeting some of you in the future!

Renée Blij