IT'S not often that you hear a 22-year-old say he prefers rural Australia over the coast, or that his passion is psychiatry and mental health, but Linden Martyr isn't your average product of Gen-Y.
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The light at the end of the tunnel for this sixth-year James Cook University medical student is blindingly bright, and, on his way towards a fully-fledged medical internship, he stopped off at Cloncurry for his first placement of 2014.
The struggle to retain doctors in rural Australia is already tough, but Mr Martyr has gone one step further in his quest to enter the profession by choosing the under-resourced sector of mental health as his specialty.
Becoming a doctor in his 20s was not a lifelong dream, and Mr Martyr said a career in medicine wasn't on his radar until he went to boarding school in Townsville.
The Martyr family was based at Cloncurry until Linden finished primary school, but he said after he started getting in trouble at school in Mount Isa he was shipped off to Cathedral Catholic College on the coast and really knuckled down to improve his grades.
``I never really thought I'd go to university or anything like that because my dad was a truck driver so I always thought I would drive trucks like dad,'' he said.
``I really liked science and maths when I went to school and I ended up getting really good marks in it,'' he said.
``I was thinking about doing engineering at the start and then I decided to do medicine.
``With engineering you help people, but you don't ever get to meet the people you're helping.''
He said the first two years were tough but well worth all the long nights, gruelling weekend study sessions and stresses of being a young school leaver locked into a busy routine.
Mr Martyr said it was a bit of a cliche to say he put himself through medical school because he liked helping people however, given his choice to become a rural generalist and passion for mental health, it's exactly what he'll be doing for the rest of his life.
``Rural generalists have a very broad scope of practice and see lots of different things,'' he said.
``There's something about a small community that has a charm to it.
``Cities are nice, but it's a big system and you just feel like you're a number out there.
``Mental health is a really big issue and there's lots of money and time spent on physical illness but mental illness is sort of swept under the carpet.''
Mr Martyr said after stints in other rural towns such as Atherton, Mossman, Ayr and Hervey Bay, it was nice to be in a town where patients appreciated his efforts to learn.
``I've seen a few patients here that I've recognised, either them or their last names,'' he said.
``I'll tell them who my family is and they get really excited.
``At a city hospital patients won't want to talk to you because you're a student.
``Out here, especially because I'm from Cloncurry, they'll get really excited and be really happy to talk to me.''
It might be a few years before Mr Martyr returns to Mount Isa or Cloncurry again as a qualified doctor, but he said the plan was definitely to head back to the North West with his girlfriend in tow once they both completed their studies and internships at the Townsville Base Hospital or facilities in Cairns.
