For our first Sunday Profile of 2022, I wanted to publish a story of a person that has changed the lives of local people in a way that not many could. Dr Chris Ingall was generous enough to give me his time in a continuously busy schedule. He is a man that has touched so many young families lives, not just as a paediatrician going about his work but as a man with bedside manner that should be bottled. This is the story of Dr Chris Ingall, the brainchild behind the Our Kids charity.

I was born in Sydney at the hospital in Crown Street I think it was.

We lived in Maroubra in the Sutherland Shire for a while, then moved to Cheltenham and then down to Cooma for five years from when I was about 10 to 16.

Dad was a fang, a dentist, and it would be fair to say he was a restless soul so after about five years in a place he would pull up stumps and go somewhere else. He did this all his life really, seven years would be a good innings anywhere.

There were a lot of different schools over the years. Monaro High School in Cooma was interesting because it had engineers from all over the world due to the Snowy Hydro Electric scheme in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s and their kids all went to Monaro High. We had this bevy of enormously intelligent engineers sons from all over the world so it was quite interesting growing up there.

For the last three years of schooling I went to boarding school. Dad sat me down one time and said “I like their product son. So you're going to go to Joeys at Hunters Hill” (in Sydney). I started boarding at Joey’s for Year’s 10, 11 and 12.

I didn’t cope too well, no, let’s say I coped but I didn’t enjoy it very much. I couldn’t see the point of it. Why would you take someone away from their family and friends. I think it was for a common good, from my Dad’s point of view, that I would perhaps do better academically. 

I asked him what he meant about liking Joey’s as a product later and he said their values and service and it’s true, Marist Brothers are all about service. You've got god’s gifts and the community with those gifts and that was a fairly strong message in my time at Joey’s.

Joey’s was of course huge at rugby. I was in the sevenths (laughs). We used to train three or four times a week and we would play Aloysius thirds or Barker firsts and beat them 44 nil, it was nuts. Back then rugby was part of the religion. There was Kings and Riverview, our closest rival and the one we wanted to win. Everyone had to turn up for the big games and every had to know the war cry. I have occasionally gone back to Joey’s for a 10 year reunion or something and there's all these kids in the stands during a crucial part of the game and they're all on their mobile phones.

When I graduated the family had moved back to Collaroy which was good. I received a letter in the mail from the Board of Studies which had my name and the letters acau, all lower case and it was signed on the bottom. It was my Year 12 result.

(Chris with Jenny, Gabrielle and Billy, his younger brother and sisters in 1976)

I went to my brother who was a year ahead of me and had started medicine at Sydney Uni and I said I got this and he said “yeah I got one of them”. I said what does it mean and he replied “just ask Dad”, typical big brother.

So, I went and asked Dad what it meant and he said “your brother got one of them go ask your brother” and I said no I asked him and he said to ask you!

He told me ‘all courses, all universities’. I said," that's good right?" and he said “yeah, son you can do law or medicine. If you do law you have to sell your soul, come back to me tomorrow”.

I came back to him the next day and said “Dad, I don’t want to sell my soul and he said “right medicine it is then” and that was it.

With medicine, I thought I could do so much good or it would be so interesting and then when I got in it I realised it was where I wanted to be.

Today you can see kids in so many courses where they are just not a good fit, even in medicine when I get the young ones coming through, so I am very fortunate that I landed in a place that suited my temperament and skillset. I loved my university days, they were just the best.

While at medical school I knew I wanted to do paediatrics. Paediatrics is about growth, people growing. Why does my finger grow? Why does it stop? Why does a child grow? Why does a child stop growing? How do they grow? It fascinated me and I thought this is really interesting and embryology is part of that, how do my organs form? Of course we know very little now, we’re still largely clueless but we observe it and it’s fascinating and wonderful. At that time I said I have to do paediatrics.

When I completed my studies I graduated with second class honours and went to North Shore for my first intern year. I went there because my brother went there, there was a lot of slipstreaming in those days.

North Shore had good rotations and soon I went to Gosford and I really enjoyed that size hospital. Back then Gosford was very much like the size of Lismore when I came up here after I finished paediatrics.

So, I finished at Gosford and came back to Camperdown (children’s hospital). There was a wonderful man called John Overton who was rung up by a local anaesthetist Bob McGuiness, who was in Gosford, and Bob said you have to take this bloke. Then a position came up and I applied with other folk and got the job.

I loved Camperdown. Everyone knew everyone and there was a dozen consultants, there were probably 20 registrars, some residence and everyone was very supportive. It was like a family.

One time there was a transport for an indigenous baby in Alice Springs who needed respiratory support and the plane from Adelaide had broken down. So, they asked me to go and get this baby and take it to Adelaide. I asked how and they said get a cab out of Richmond (Western Sydney) where we have a Hercules waiting for you. So, we took an empty Hercules to Adelaide, intubated and ventilated this tiny baby and put it on life support, handed the baby over and then flew back to Sydney to the dawn.

They are unforgettable moments I must admit. It was wonderful to think that you are giving this child a chance. Paediatrics is full of that, as I’m getting on I see people in general practice or residents and they say I couldn’t do paed’s because they have a child that age so it’s very touching in that way and I’ve got grandkids now who are that age. You can’t escape that as a person but you try and be a professional and say it is not going to stop me doing the job but equally it is a privilege. At the end of the day you say this is a really great privilege to be able to step into a person’s life and help at that moment.

(The 2022 Our Kids Calendar)

Do you bring home those emotions with you?

I would be lying if I said you don’t bring them home to a degree because you do. I would come home and say to Cath “I think I need a beer, today was a tough one because we lost a baby” and then we would talk about it. What is the expression? A trouble shared….

You just muddle through and everyone did their best. As you get older in the game, say a baby comes into ED (emergency department) there might be two anaesthetists, two ED staff and a number of nurses and they’re waiting.

They will call me in and I can see that the baby has already left but they’re still ventilating and there is still a heartbeat. At that moment I’ve got to be the closest person to that baby. So, you would come up and I would say “just let me do this bagging here now” and you just gradually let everyone off the hook.

You bring the parents in and you get them to touch their baby and talk them as they know their voice, talk and touch, you get the parents to be part of it. Then you say “I’m really sorry” and then you don’t say anything for a minute, they know, they know.

They surface again and I say “if we keep going like this we’re not going to do him any favours. His pupils are not reacting, his mind has left. We might keep his heart going but does he want that? Do you want that? They cry some more and I say this is my decision, this is not your decision, I think we need to allow him to go. Nature needs to take your baby now. We’ve done everything we can here but this is his time and this is not on you.

I leave them with their baby and make cups of tea. Everyone did what they could, they couldn’t have done any better, there was no cause in this from them (staff) and the outcome that no one wants. Then I go home and have a scotch.

When did you come to the Northern Rivers?

I came to Lismore straight from finishing at Camperdown in 1987.

David Gilmour, who was the only paediatrician in the Northern Rivers, was looking for someone to share the on-call with. There weren’t too many people in Grafton and Tweed then so David was a very busy man although they would have been choppered in and out.

He did a one-in-one for about 9 years, I did a one-in-two for about another decade and then Dr Ian Lennon came and David Meldrum so now we have it down to one-in-four.

I was clueless when I came up as to how long I wanted to stay for. I remember thinking how it was going to be up here. I knew I wasn’t a city guy, I didn’t enjoy the city that much. It is like a treat-to-people ratio, you know, this has got the right treat-to-people ratio up here, it’s just nice.

When I came to Lismore I met my wife Cath in 1993 so 28 years ago. She had been living in Sydney then came to the Northern Rivers.

We haven’t had any children together but have children each from previous marriages, three for Cath and two for me.

Sue, my first wife and I have two girls, Jessica and Camilla, who are both in Sydney.

(Chris being a Dad with daughters Jessica and Camilla in 1990)

Jessica is more a business head and works for Nickelodeon and Channel 10. I ask her what she does and she says “I do lunch” (laughing) so working the sponsorship side of it.

Camilla runs her own company called Unfolded which deals with interior design, she is more creative. During lockdown she spent three months in Ballina, doubling her business which proves that a lot of jobs can now be based anywhere.

Cath has three children Adam, Julia and Alyce. Alyce is working in the children’s ward as a nurse.

There is no medicine in the family anymore but perhaps they saw what I did and said are you crazy? (laughs).

The three ticks for our kids were they woke up in the morning to a job they liked, they would find a partner they enjoyed living with and they don’t do drugs but after that they are on their own.

We are very fortunate, I feel very blessed about that. With kids you just can’t chart their life. They all come home for Christmas, they are all healthy so we are very lucky.

How do you unwind?

I’ve always loved cycling, they joy of cycling.

I will cycle a few times a week in the mornings between 5 and 6:30 and it lifts my mood and it gives me a little bit of buffer. I can handle things so much better if I have been riding the bicycle that morning for a tough situation or conflict.

This weekend I’ll ride the low tide beach from Patches to Broad Water or up to South Break Water and I’ll be the only bloke on the beach now because the cars are gone from South Ballina beach and I just marvel at being able to drive my car 25 minutes and then ride my bike in the wilderness. It’s just such a beautiful part of the world.

(Our Kids board members, from left, Tanya Jones, Tanya Kirkland, Dr Chris Ingall, Suzette Pearce and Rebekka Battista)

How did Our Kids come about?

When I came here in ’87, I realised pretty quickly that the budget didn’t stretch to paediatric equipment very easily.

If David and I had a child that needed ventilating, a new born, and the plane was coming we would just bag that baby for four hours because there was no ventilator. I was thinking there has to be a better way, a machine that does this for me.

We couldn’t use an adult machine as it delivered too much pressure, too much volume, so we would try and put a ventilator on the list and it would get up near the top and then it would get knocked off by an ICU purchase or a theatre purchase.

That is just the way it is, having a small paediatric unit in a large adult hospital. So, I thought to myself god helps those who helps themselves so let’s start a fund.

Initially, the idea came with a family who had two boys with muscle dystrophy and then another girl was born with another muscle problem.

We take our muscles for granted, when you have a muscle problem just about everything that you can imagine is affected. It is a very expensive life in terms of ventilator support, being able to be lifted everywhere, transport, wheelchairs, cars and hoists. So, these families went and started fundraising and it split one of them and nearly split the other one because the fathers, who were good honest tradies, couldn’t stump up $65,000 for this or that. So, the mum’s started fundraising and the father’s would say no, no that’s my job to provide for my family.

I thought there is something fundamentally wrong with this picture, that is something that the community, I am sure, if they knew about it would back. I also knew that the community would not back random families they have never met asking themselves is this the real deal? Trust would need to be built.

So, I thought if we start off with hospital equipment and build trust then we can start looking at the same money also helping community. We call that community grants now and NDIS has largely taken the burden off that which is terrific but that was the first arm.

Then through the hospital we started to fundraise and the calendar was the first thing we did and getting sponsors for that. We didn’t have a thousand calendars back then, you walk into Australia Post now and there’s like how many calendars. So, we made some money each year from that.

It took a year or two to get our first piece of equipment. The Local Health District (LHD) do their best to go dollar for dollar or the like. Then we started growing events, then started developing a form around that but basically Annie Curtain, Austin Curtain’s wife, was absolutely amazing at the outset, she was bringing community support in.

There was just a small little group of us. There was a fundraiser that had to be paid out of the funds we raised which is still the case. There has never been that leg-up if you like. The LHD helps us in other ways like insurance, rental on our office and things like that so it’s a relationship.

Rebekka Battista took up the fundraising role. Rebekka has always had a flare for that, she has always been that person with a big heart and a great way with people.

That really started to give us some momentum in the community. I’m watching all this happen and thinking why is anyone interested? I am interested because I want this piece of equipment but you’re interested, why? It has almost grown around me. I am that, in case of emergencies break glass person now.

It’s grown up since then with the events and people wanted to be on the board. People like Bronwyn Curtain, Annie’s daughter-in-law, has come on the board, Simon Stahl from Northern Meats, Mark Pearce, Suzette Trinity, Luke Houlihan, Damien Chappelle, Tanya Jones and Tanya Kirkland, Kevin Carter from the Base in finance, people with a diverse range of skills sit around and they all keep this thing happening. I am still amazed.

I want to have enough money in the bank to get through COVID or enough to get us through the global financial crisis so I am now just that guy.

The ventilator finally came after two or three years.

(Dr Chris Ingall with one of the first resuscitaire purchased in 2014)

The people of the Northern Rivers can identify with the hospital and identify with Our Kids as something that if they put a dollar in there then most of it if not all of it will get to buy that piece of equipment.

Now, what we’re hoping is children and grand-children of people in the community who have received benefit from the equipment to keep them local, are saying hang on that was good and now they’re starting to come in. It has a lovely natural build now. That only happens when you continue to be honest and be transparent.

Charity is a business and you have to have savy to build relationships and sponsorships and talk to the community, none of which I had at all but I watch the people around me say “say this” so I say it and it’s great, it works.

We have reached over the $2 million mark and everyone seems to be really happy to be part of it so I’m really happy.

This is an ongoing process because equipment always dies, equipment runs out of software, support, it fades out from being useful plus equipment gets more and more sophisticated so the piece you have now will be outdated in the years to come, it is a never ending bucket.

What is lovely now is the registras come up here from Sydney, Newcastle or down from the Gold Coast and they say “wow, we don’t have one of these” but we do.

I love going to the annual calendars launches, you see these little kids, who all have an issue that’s seen them come through the children’s ward and they are so chuffed, they are like a celebrity.

They say "there’s my picture" and they love the photo shoots and the family do too. It puts a positive spin on their difficulty and I had never thought that angle through. Now, that is the greatest thing, the same as the ‘Day Out’ we have in Ballina. I never thought of that as being something high on the scale but now it is the one I love the most because its free and you get all these mum’s pushing prams, coming in and seeing a show like Peppa Pig. It is a good two hours of entertainment with the kids beside themselves enjoying it.

I say to myself, I get it, I get it now, these are the people who keep us in business.

(Dr Chris Ingall arm wrestling Commando at the annual Winters Ball event)

What about retirement?

I don’t know. I am trying to build succession with the younger paediatricians because I think it would be good to have a paediatrician or paediatricians taking that central role if there needs to be a piece of equipment explained.

Recently, I went along to the charity golf day in Lismore and got up and explained what it is we are buying and what it does and people are just so interested. Tradies and business people around town hearing a story of a three week old baby who needed this to be put into their chest, their lung came back up, got them on the chopper and they’re doing fine. That is what this piece of equipment does, this is where your money is going.

Plus what new equipment we need or don’t need.

Understanding the general community, the hospital community, all giving it continued momentum, I am very thankful for that.

Then my role becomes less and less.