Professor John Dearin reflects on his medical career after retiring from general practice

According to Doctor Dearin, it felt right for him to wind down his workload as he ages.

"I've retired from general practice, but I'm continuing with my university work and the prison clinic one day a week," Dr Dearin said.

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"I eased back considerably in terms of my clinical work. And that's appropriate as one gets older."

Professor Dearin's pursuit in medicine began during the 1950's, after hearing a radio broadcast that set the course of his life.

"I knew I wanted to be a Doctor at the age of eight. I'm much influenced by a very well known missionary Doctor who worked in Africa," Dr Dearin said.

"I was so impressed by his work, I decided that's what I wanted to do. So I went off to medical school, and became a Doctor."

Professor Dearin graduated from medical school in 1975, before spending a number of years training in internal medicine at Royal North Shore Hospital.

After a stint as the acting director of rehabilitation and geriatrics at Mona Vale Hospital, Professor Dearin spent a decade Tamworth base hospital as the Director of rehabilitation and geriatrics.

During his time in Tamworth, Professor Dearin took on another role that he said was "an interesting highlight" in his career.

"I was also the government medical officer, which meant that I did quite a lot of forensic post mortems for the coroner," Dr Dearin said.

After returning to Sydney for the final years of their children's education, Professor Dearin and his wife made the move to Lithgow in 2000.

Professor Dearin said it has been delightful to connect with the people of Lithgow over the past 20 years of practice.

"I have very much enjoyed my time of practice here. It's been a privilege and a great joy," Dr Dearin said.

"It's been professionally and personally very satisfying to be part of the Lithgow community."

Professor Dearin has been involved with the University of Notre Dame since 2006, when he was approached with an offer to "head up" a new campus in Lithgow.

Professor Dearin was appointed as a Senior Lecturer for the school in 2007, followed by his current Associate Professor role in 2011.

In January this year, Professor Dearin was honoured for his career when he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

"I feel deeply honoured, and very grateful to the community for their endorsement. They're the ones who nominated me," he said at the time.

Another achievement Professor Dearin speaks proudly of is when he received a 'Lithgow Legends' award from the Lithgow Mercury in 2014.

Professor Dearin said it has been astounding to see the advancement of medicine during the course of his long career.

"There have been remarkable changes in the way in which we investigate and treat disease," Dr Dearin said.

"The development of CT scanning, which was in its infancy when I graduated, the development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), which was non existent when I graduated."

"There have also been significant advances in the treatment of malignant and heart diseases."

"It's been a privilege to have witnessed all of that over the last 40 odd years."

Professor Dearin said he intends to continue his work at Notre Dame University and the correctional centre for as long as he is able to.

"I will stay here as long as it's appropriate, and as long as I preserve my mental function. I very much enjoy teaching students," Dr Dearin said.

"I also want to continue to work at the prison. Prisoners are a very disadvantaged group of people whose lives have been traumatised from their earliest years."

"It's a great privilege to be able to serve in the prison community amd to try and make life a bit better for them."