Rachael Beck – In Their Own Words
August 21, 2026
Jo Efoti- Showing Up
August 21, 2026Rachael Beck – In Their Own Words
August 21, 2026Jo Efoti- Showing Up
August 21, 2026THE ORANA WOMAN · EDITION 01 · BIG PROFILE
Dr Mary Nushaj
Dubbo's famous dancing doctor
Medicine, movement, friendship and showing up — with a red dress, a Kate Bush routine and absolutely no fear of looking ridiculous for a good cause. Mary is part of the serious work of cancer care in western NSW. She is also the woman Cam & Shaz could rely on to stand in front of a roomful of Dubbo Kates and teach us how to Wuther.
BY SHARON QUILL · CAM & SHAZ · HUMAN AND LOCAL · BETTER TOGETHER
THE CAM & SHAZ VERSION
Dubbo's famous dancing doctor.
That is what we called her. Not because we were writing a formal biography. Because Mary became one of the unmistakable faces of Dubbo's Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever — doctor, friend, local legend and very patient teacher of dramatic Kate Bush arm movements.
THE REAL THREAD
The silly stuff and the serious stuff are not opposites.
Mary has been there through friendship, illness, fundraising, cancer care, school community and Wuthering. She understands how serious life can get. Perhaps that is exactly why she is so willing to make room for joy.
THE SERIOUS WORK
Western Cancer Centre Dubbo.
Mary's public clinical work includes cancer care and quality-improvement research within the Western Cancer Centre Dubbo network.
THE RED DRESS
Dubbo Wuthering.
Practice first. Official Wuther second. Mary out front leading the misty moves while Dubbo raises money for local cancer support.
THE COMMUNITY PERSON
She shows up.
For friends. Patients. Fundraisers. School community. And, when required, several hundred people dressed as Kate Bush.
BEFORE THE RED DRESS
Mary was my friend before she was Dubbo's dancing doctor.
There is a photograph I love of Mary, Belinda and me from another chapter of life.
Our friend Leah was very ill. We did what friends do when something is far bigger than anything they can fix: we found things we could do. We organised. We fundraised. Mary shaved her hair. We made noise and tried to turn love into something useful.
Years later, when Mary is standing in front of a hall in Dubbo wearing red and teaching a Kate Bush dance to raise money around cancer care, it does not feel like a random funny side project.
It feels completely like her.
Mary understands the serious stuff. Maybe that is exactly why she is so willing to do the silly stuff.
THE DOCTOR
The public version of Mary carries considerably more responsibility than the red dress suggests.
Mary is part of the Western Cancer Centre Dubbo clinical community. In 2024 she was a co-author on a quality-improvement study examining central venous access care across the Western Cancer Centre Dubbo network.
Her medical path also includes time in the United Kingdom, where public professional records list her as a Specialist Registrar in Medical Microbiology at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
That gives us the serious context. But it still does not tell you the thing I like most about Mary: she is deeply willing to be part of the community around the medicine, not only the medicine itself.
See the Western Cancer Centre Dubbo clinical research.
ENTER CAM & SHAZ
Which is how a doctor ends up teaching Dubbo Kate Bush.
Dubbo's Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever is exactly the sort of idea Cam and I love: gloriously ridiculous on the surface, completely sincere underneath.
Hundreds of people in red recreating Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. Joy, theatre, community participation and a fundraiser for local cancer support.
And out the front: Dr Mary.
Our event page calls her a local legend, Dubbo's dancing doctor of oncology and the woman guiding everybody through the misty moves. She leads the crowd. She does not appear to require dignity as a condition of community service.
See Dubbo's Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever.
There are some people you ask to help because they are competent. There are other people you ask because you know they will understand the spirit of the thing. Mary is both.
THE WALL OF LOVE
Underneath all the red dresses is the reason we keep doing it.
At Wuthering we have a Wall of Love, where people can write the names of loved ones who are no longer dancing with us.
The event is joyful because grief does not need another sombre room to prove it is real.
In 2025 proceeds supported the Wellness Centre at the Western Cancer Centre in Dubbo — a place designed around the realities of cancer care in western NSW and the people and families living through it.
Sometimes remembering someone looks like tears. Sometimes it looks like a crowd doing the same wild arm movement in red dresses.
AND THEN THERE IS SCHOOL
Because community people rarely belong to only one community.
In 2024 Mary was elected President of the Macquarie Anglican Grammar School Parents & Friends Association.
I love that this sits beside the cancer centre and the dancing because it completes the picture. Mary is not a person who performs “community” for a particular project. She participates in the ordinary machinery of it.
Meetings. Families. Volunteering. Fundraising. Healthcare. Friends. Red dresses. It all counts.
See the Macquarie Anglican Grammar School 2024 Annual Report.
DUBBO'S FAMOUS DANCING DOCTOR
That is why I wanted to keep the name we gave her.
It is affectionate. Slightly ridiculous. Very Cam & Shaz.
And somehow it contains more truth than a list of qualifications ever could.
Because the Mary I know does not keep the doctor, the friend, the community member and the woman prepared to dance badly for a good cause in separate boxes.
She just shows up as herself.
The most serious people are sometimes the ones who understand best that joy is serious too.
— Sharon
THE RELATIONSHIP MAP
Friendship becomes action. Action becomes community.
Sharon + Belinda + Mary + Leah → friendship → illness → fundraising → showing up.
Sharon + Cam → Dubbo Wuthering → joy + participation + cancer fundraising.
Dr Mary → teaches the dance → becomes Dubbo's famous dancing doctor.
Mary → cancer care + school community + friends → the same instinct in different rooms.
THE QUESTION TO CARRY
What does showing up look like when you stop worrying about whether it looks impressive?
Sometimes it is clinical work. Sometimes it is a school committee. Sometimes it is shaving your hair for a friend.
And sometimes it is teaching strangers to fling their arms around like Kate Bush.
All of it can be care.
CONNECTED READ
Belinda Rayment — 360 Steps Away
Another woman from the same friendship thread: Sydney, motherhood, Leah, fundraising, regional life and the people who stay beside you through the serious and ridiculous parts.
Some friendships become part of the infrastructure.