Dr Sarah Fitzgibbon is lighting up the dark with a medical network for women

"Fitzgibbon posted a Tweet asking if women doctors here were interested in setting up an association and got an enthusiastic response - it was the first step towards establishing the Women in Medicine in Ireland Network (WiMIN)."

“We lift each other up and reach out to each other,” says Dr Sarah Fitzgibbon of WiMIN.. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

In the depths of winter and at a dark time in her life, Dr Sarah Fitzgibbon saw a chink of light.

She was undergoing chemotherapy to treat stage IV cancer in December 2017. With time on her hands, she began to scroll through Twitter. A post from the Medical Women’s Federation caught her attention – the British organisation was celebrating its centenary. She began to search online and soon found the Medical Women’s International Association and similar groups in Japan, India and Nigeria. Female doctors in Ireland had no such support network.