Beloved East Devonport GP Bryn Parry is that increasingly rare breed of family doctor who is old school in the best sense.
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He makes house calls even at night and is universally respected.
He has the reputation for taking on patients others term difficult and is famous for long general practice sessions that occasionally finish at 11.30 pm.
"It saddens me to feel like I'm a passing generation turning into a dinosaur as a family doctor," he said.
More used to caring for the sick his voice and calm nature are like a safe port in a storm when people need it most. However, as a patient, he's on a rapid learning curve.
Dr Parry recently got the cruelest diagnosis with a devastating prognosis of up to two years to live.
He has degenerative and ultimately deadly, Motor Neurone Disease which causes the nerve cells controlling the muscles that enable you to move around, speak, swallow and breathe to weaken and waste away.
MND has no known cure.
He has one tablet he can take to prolong the onset by six to eight months.
The father of three, who shuns the attention, has been humbled by the overwhelming outpouring of love and support from his patients and others.
He found out he had MND on September 24 and stopped working two months ago.
"You don't go to work for a day without seeing someone suffering more than you are; it prepares you for that reality, and remembering what you said to all those patients, you have to be prepared to take your own medicine," Dr Parry said.
When the athletic 57-year-old noticed he ran differently, it was the first sign of a problem six months before he knew the reason.
He fits the MND patient profile of between 50 and 60-years-old.
"The way it comes on, it's insidious," he said.
"I gradually realised I wasn't running like I used to, and then I was dragging my foot."
MND is diagnosed through an arduous process of ruling out other illnesses.
"It's like MND is at the bottom of the bucket, and you don't want to get there," Dr Parry said.
"As my neurologist said to me, it's the feared diagnosis."
During 30 years in general practice, his job was to diagnose others.
Now sitting on the other side of the desk with his GP during COVID-19 restrictions, he saw the complicated system to investigate if he had MND made much more difficult.
Tasmania was reliant on fly-in neurologists to do the nerve conduction studies his doctor ordered, and two months later, nothing had happened.
He decided to visit a foot specialist friend in Hobart and could see he was worried.
It raised his own level of concern.
"When I saw the neurosurgeon, even he couldn't get a more rapid appointment for me with the neurologist in Hobart," Dr Parry said.
He was used to advocating strongly for his patients but didn't want to jump the queue.
By the time he was shuffling and falling over, it still took a month to get the nerve conduction studies done. When he finally met with the neurologist, he found out three referrals did not even make it through the system.
"I was only there because I was encouraged to ring the registrar myself," he said.
Dr Parry didn't wish to complain about the health system, but given his passion for his patients' welfare, he felt deeply for those let down by it.
For him the hardest thing was knowing what his family would go through as his condition worsened, particularly his 13-year-old daughter Myf. Sons Lucas and David were older and married.
As time passes, they're going to experience it. That's the thing that gets to your soul.
- Dr Parry said, his voice laden with emotion.
He's still learning to be a patient.
One of the mistakes doctors made was not always considering the patient's anxiety walking in the door with concerns on their mind, he said.
He did not give up hope until he got diagnosed.
"There was the vague hope we'd missed something to tell us we were outside the (MND) box," he said. However, he saw it in the neurosurgeon's face and knew.
"Once you get the diagnosis, it's the people around you that suffer."
Dr Parry said at first he probably knew as much about MND as he did from football legend Neale Daniher who is beating the odds and using his fame to raise millions for research to find a cure.
"It was a shock to be given the prognosis because I asked straight out and was told I had a 50 per cent chance of surviving two years but better prepare as though I may have a year," Dr Parry said.
"That was the hardest thing to hear.
"Next most challenging was when I decided to stop working.
"That was a line in the sand for me.
"We've got wonderful staff at East Devonport. It's probably apt to compare it to a big family or maybe a prison. Once people start there, they don't tend to leave."
Dr Parry is focused on what he can do, "but there's an ever-reducing circle of capabilities."
He got inundated with cards and some beautiful letters from patients rocked by his illness.
"I was extremely moved," he said.
For him, medicine became his calling.
"I was more interested in people than illnesses, so I became a GP rather than a specialist," he said.
"I always felt the ongoing relationship was the important thing, and that's why I stayed in the one place for all this time."
He's in a transition phase with MND as his legs get weaker and he tires easily.
"My priority was to spend the holidays with my family, knowing it might be the last summer I could enjoy doing stuff being able-bodied," Dr Parry said.
He was the first patient to attend the new MND multidisciplinary clinic at the Launceston General Hospital.
"My job now is to go to physio and work on an exercise program that optimises the function of the muscles," he said.
Sadly a lot remains unknown about MND, and he welcomed the community response to his diagnosis being to raise money for research when people desperately wanted to do something.
His cricket club the Mersey Colts, the Devonport Lifeway Baptist Church he attends, and his workplace arranged an invitational T20 cricket match and fun day for Dr Parry at Byard Park on February 21 from 11 am until 4 pm, to raise money for MND Tasmania.
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"It's just blown me away, and it's a wonderful thought to recognise that people respond out of their hearts and empathy for what they imagine I will go through. It's a powerful thing. I also have tremendous family support."
He still wants to improve at playing the base guitar at church on Sundays.
"Anyone who wants to is welcome to come along," he quipped.
Dr Parry shook his head when asked if he ever questioned why him?
His young grandson, Robbie, has the rare disorder Angelman syndrome.
"Robbie and his parents have inspired us," he said.
"We went from a family never touched by this kind of thing, and then it was Robbie before me."
