Transforming cancer care
David Christopher Cordery
Radiotherapist, born in Christchurch, March 23, 1928; died in Thames, July 30, 2017.
Adoctor with a strong commitment to general practice, David Cordery was influential in advancing cancer care in Palmerston North and throughout New Zealand.
His early years were spent in the South Island, where he grew up in Christchurch, spent a year at Timaru Boys’ High School, finished his secondary schooling at Christ’s College, and studied at Otago Medical School.
After graduating, he made his first visit to Palmerston North, where he did his house surgeon training in 1953-54.
He spent nine years in Opotiki, firstly as a general practitioner, and as assistant medical superintendent at Opotiki Hospital.
Returning to Palmerston North in 1964, he was awarded a fellowship by the Palmerston North Hospital Board and the Central Districts division of what would later become the Cancer Society to study radiotherapy in Middlesex in the United Kingdom.
In 1967 he returned to Palmerston North to work fulltime as a radiotherapist with the trail-blazing director of radiotherapy, Don Urquhart.
He worked not only on improving cancer treatment services in Palmerston North, but was on a committee that travelled around New Zealand advising other hospitals.
While building up the department into what would later become the Regional Cancer Treatment Service, Dr Cordery also spent several years working parttime in general practice, in the first group practice in the city at 268 Broadway Ave.
He was aware that cancer care was not all about the treatment that happened within hospital, and played a key part in development of community services to support people with cancer.
He was deeply involved with Ozanam House, set up to provide accommodation for families travelling to Palmerston North to support patients going through treatment, and increasingly, as a place for patients themselves to stay.
He was a member of the Ozanam House Trust from 1984 to 1993, and its chairman in 1988-89.
His involvement with the Cancer Society saw him awarded a life membership in 1992.
In 1986, he was a member of a Palmerston North Hospital Board committee set up in response to community demands for a hospice, which came back with a recommendation that hospice services be set up as soon as possible.
Colleague Perce Bydder described him as ‘‘a good, honest guy’’ who was very good at putting things together.
He said his experience as a GP helped him understand that the effects of cancer were more than physical issues to be treated, and affected people’s families.
He was someone who helped Palmerston North develop from a provincial, Gp-staffed hospital to a fully professional hospital with specialist services, Bydder said.
Under his leadership the cancer ward was transformed from a rather dismal place into something far more respectable and acceptable.
‘‘He must get a lot of the credit for working with the Cancer Society in really putting Palmerston North on the map.’’
After his retirement in 1994, he travelled with his wife Sharon to Israel, where they spent six months as volunteers in a Christian guest house.
They returned to Palmerston North, then moved to Auckland, and spent the last 12 years in Thames, where he became an excellent bridge player and enjoyed music, reading, cryptic crosswords, and the large garden the couple established on their hillside property.
After suffering a stroke just over two years ago, Sharon said they enjoyed ‘‘an Indian summer’’ before a short illness claimed his life.
A private man, many of his contemporaries knew little about his interests outside work, apart from his love of tennis.
He was a man of deep faith, and the family held a private funeral service in keeping with his wishes.
He is survived by his wife, Sharon, sons John and Michael, daughter Sarah, step-daughters Kerensa and Ilana, five grandchildren and seven stepgrandchildren.
‘‘He must get a lot of the credit for working with the Cancer Society in really putting Palmerston North on the map.’’ Perce Bydder