Darien Montgomerie

Icon Group’s 2021 Middleton Scholar

Improving radiation therapy access in New Zealand through global learnings

Darien Montgomerie is a radiation therapist with over 20 years’ public and private experience working in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. She has lectured on the Bachelor of Radiation Therapy Programme at University of Otago and continues to hold an honorarium post. Darien is the Site Manager of the Bowen Icon Cancer Centre in Wellington (Icon Group’s first integrated cancer centre in New Zealand), a member of the New Zealand Targeting Cancer team advocating the role of radiation therapy, and the current radiation therapy online editor for the Journal of Medical Radiation Sciences.

As the 2021 Middleton Scholar, Darien has seen many networking opportunities with World Class Leaders. Darien’s experience of advocating for increased access to radiation therapy nationally in New Zealand enabled her to bring worldwide access to the forefront of her conversations. Read Darien’s article on the UICC website here.

Following an early meeting with Kirstie Graham, UICC’s Head of Capacity Building, Darian was invited to speak at a UICC special focus dialogue – Ensuring access to radiotherapy services.

Darien has networked with Icon’s partners at City Cancer Challenge Foundation, and through an introduction made with partners at C/Can, was invited to participate in the Global Coalition for Radiotherapy.

From the outset Darien viewed the Middleton Scholarship as an opportunity not just for herself, but for her team at Bowen. She has already shared some of the learnings from the UICC masters course on comprehensive cancer centres internally with the team at Bowen. Darien is also involved in discussions about future opportunities for the Bowen team to host an UICC technical fellow in radiation therapy through the UICC Virtual Fellowship program, learning about the planning and delivery of world class radiation therapy treatment at Icon.

As travel restrictions have prevented Darien from meeting Icon’s partners in person, Mark Middleton has invited Darien to travel with him, Alicia Moo (2020 winner), and the 2022 Middleton Scholar to the World Cancer Congress in Geneva 2022.

Follow Darien on LinkedIn

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