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Helen Caldicott

by Maia from Napier


Helen Caldicott is my hero. She is a pediatrician and an antinuclear activist, who opposes both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Helen Caldicott was born on August 7th in Melbourne, Australia. She was brought up in Australia most of her life and went to a school there and she studied to be a physician. Her father died at the age of 51 from cancer. He spent his life constructing houses. She often helped him by handing him the materials he needed. Her mother died at the age of 58 and beat Helen Caldicott severely as a child, even though Helen once commented that her mother was "the most fascinating person I ever knew, the most intelligent, and really my best friend when I grew up."


When Helen was 19 years of age she read a book called 'On the beach.' An Australian author wrote it. The book took place in the city she grew up in- Melbourne, Australia. They got hit by a nuclear bomb. The book had changed her life a lot. She definitely knew what she wanted to be after reading that life changing book. After studying and searching and all her commitment had finished she became a big part in the staff of the children's hospital medical centre in Boston, Massachusetts.

Through her years being a physician she won a lot of awards for her hard work, including: a Nobel peace prize nominee, a winner of peace medal award, integrity award, peace award, SANE award, Gandhi peace prize, the Norman Cousins Award for peace-making, and the Margaret Mead Award. All of those awards are just from being a true hero and from her job being a physician. She's probably an award winning beast! She has written a lot of books in her lifetime too, including: Nuclear Madness; If You Love This Planet, and A Desperate Passion. She has made some films and received awards for some too. one of these, Eight Minutes of Midnight, was nominated for an academy award in 1983 for the best documentary. Her first speech as an activist was to five old ladies at the YWCA in Adelaide. Her life back then was hard but she tried her best in every way. In 1975, she worked with the Australian Trade Union to educate the members on that committee about the nuclear testing. Also in 1975, she founded the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at Adelaide Children's Hospital.

In 1978, while living in the United State, she founded the Physicians Social Responsibility. This organization had 23,000 doctors committed to educating their colleagues about the dangers of the nuclear power, nuclear weapons and the nuclear war around the world. Two years after all that, in 1980, she founded the Woman's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, as an independent roll. She defeated the leader of the national party, but she lost the overall election by 600 votes! She now currently resides in Long Island, New York. Helen Caldicott now gets involved a lot with the injured people from tsunamis and earthquakes. She helps them a lot and does all the medication for them.


Helen Caldicott is really dedicated to everything she does. She never gives up and that's why I chose her as my hero. She is always helping and always dedicated to all the work she does. She is a very busy woman. Helen is an environmentalist and does a lot to help the environment in every way. She is also a peace activist and does a lot to help the world in every way. She loves her jobs and loves who she is. Helen Caldicott is a planet worker. She works a lot with the nuclear fuel cycle and how she wants to stop it. Nuclear power can make kids and adults all over the world at risk of cancer. Nuclear power is a risk for all humans and their health. Nuclear power is reaching the environment and Helen Caldicott is against it and wants it to stop. Helen Caldicott is a great hero. She could save the world. She also cares a lot about the environment. I really enjoyed getting to know her and her life. She will always be my hero.

Page created on 7/2/2013 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 7/2/2013 12:00:00 AM

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