Healing Lives

By: Sue Williams

Narrated by: Alexandra Aldrich

Two incredible women, an unlikely friendship and a united mission to save the lives of some of the world's poorest and most desperate women.

Healing Lives reveals the untold tale of Mamitu Gashe, Dr Catherine Hamlin's protégée, and the inspiring almost 60-year friendship between the two women.

In 1962, three years after Drs Catherine and Reg Hamlin arrived in Ethiopia, an illiterate peasant girl sought their aid. Mamitu Gashe was close to death and horrifically injured during childbirth after an arranged marriage - at the age of just 14 to a man she'd never met - in a remote mountain village.

The Hamlins' Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital saved her and, in return, Mamitu dedicated her life to Catherine's mission. Under the iconic doctor's guidance, Mamitu went from mopping floors and comforting her fellow patients to becoming one of the most acclaimed fistula surgeons in the world, despite never having had a day's schooling.

This is the moving story of the friendship that saved the lives of more than 60,000 of the poorest women on earth.

©2020 Sue Williams (P)2020 Macmillan Australia Audio

Critic reviews

"A story of friendship like no other...breathtaking in its tenderness and inspiration." (The Hon. Dame Quentin Bryce, AD, CVO)