Lymphoedema Insights for Health Professionals

Bridging Two Worlds: Insights on Engagement from a Health Professional Living with Lymphoedema

Maree O'Connor Episode 9

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0:00 | 28:02

In this episode of Lymphoedema Insights, Maree speaks with Mary Toomey, whose unique perspective as both an experienced physiotherapist and someone living with stroke and lymphoedema brings depth and authenticity to the conversation. Together, they explore the realities of long-term management, the intersection of neurological change and lymphoedema, and the practical and relational factors that influence engagement over time. Whether you are early in your career or have decades of experience, this episode offers thoughtful reflections on listening, shared decision-making, and the subtle elements of care that shape outcomes in chronic oedema management. 

 

About our guest speaker: Mary Toomey 

Mary Toomey is a former physiotherapist and high-performance health leader with more than three decades’ experience across hospital care, private practice, and elite sport. After graduating in 1979, she worked extensively in high-performance environments, holding senior roles with organisations including the Melbourne Storm, Netball Australia, and the Queensland Academy of Sport, where she led multidisciplinary health and wellbeing teams supporting elite athletes.  

Following a major stroke in 2016, Mary transitioned academically into sociology and is currently undertaking a PhD exploring racism as a social determinant of health for First Nations athletes. Drawing on her clinical, managerial, and lived experience perspectives, her work focuses on the structural and social drivers of health, wellbeing, and equity, with a particular interest in how systems shape outcomes across sport and health settings. 


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