“My mum was an amazing businesswoman. She juggled six kids and embraced the local neighbourhood. We lived above the pharmacy, so she was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week”.
Born into a busy household of six children, pharmacy was in Anne’s blood from the very beginning. Her mother was a pioneering pharmacist and businesswoman, running a local community pharmacy from their family home. Living above the pharmacy meant Anne’s mother was on call 24/7, her unique selling point in the community of Dundalk, answering to people at all hours for medicines and advice.
Her mother’s dedication left a lasting impression on Anne, but ironically, none of her older siblings followed their mother into the profession.
“My Leaving Cert results were mediocre and nowhere near good enough for pharmacy. The funny thing was, it was only when I saw my results that I realised I really did want to do pharmacy”.
After attending a boarding school in Kilkeel and two years of hard work, Anne was offered a place in both Queen’s University Belfast and Trinity College Dublin, ultimately choosing Trinity.
When Anne qualified in 1991, she returned straight to her family’s pharmacy in Dundalk. Her return marked a turning point for her mother. After years of commitment to the pharmacy, Anne’s mother retired with Anne taking her place.
“The day I qualified and walked in the door, my mother passed the baton to me. It felt like the right time after she had dedicated so much of her life to the pharmacy”.
Like her father, who once stepped in to keep the pharmacy running when her mother was ill, Anne sees herself as both a caretaker of people and of the business. Anne believes that too often pharmacists undervalue themselves by providing services free.
Learning to balance care with business was a turning point for her. Once she introduced a fee for services, people valued her even more, and the demand for her services grew.
“I’m more like my father in many ways — I love the business and the people side. And I think today’s pharmacists need to be more business savvy. Valuing yourself makes others value you”.
Covid-19 brought unexpected challenges. To protect the business. Anne split her team into two and while one team was on the other team was off. Since then, she has embraced a four-day working week. It’s a shift Anne sees mirrored in younger generations, who put a great emphasis on work-life balance. Anne understands the value of time away from business as well as time in it.
“We worked incredibly hard on those days on, It was one of the best things that happened to me in terms of balance”.
In 2008, Anne’s Dundalk store was the very first Life Pharmacy in Ireland chosen as the pilot site for the new retail concept by Uniphar. The shift marked a turning point in Anne’s career, allowing her to expand her services beyond illness into wellness, prevention and lifestyle. Anne has since embraced the idea that a pharmacy is more than just a place to collect prescriptions, it is a hub for living well.
“I became the pilot — the first Life Pharmacy in Ireland, around 2008. It was one of the best business decisions of my life”.
Anne has witnessed first hand how the role of the pharmacist has evolved over the years, from a service focused largely on dispensing medicines to one that sits at the very centre of community healthcare. Today’s pharmacies are hubs of support and advice and for Anne, these opportunities are the most rewarding part of the job.
“The number of prescriptions is ever growing; it’s the expansion of services is what I love. Vaccinations, blood pressure checks, diabetic testing, travel vaccines — all of these let us interact directly with patients”.
These moments create a space for genuine conversations and connections, allowing Anne the ability to make a real difference in people’s everyday lives.
For Anne, the rewards aren’t in policy or profit but in the people. Since the pandemic, she has noticed a clear shift in how pharmacists are perceived, no longer just a convenient option, but often the first port of call for people’s health concerns. That trust has made pharmacists in their communities, a role Anne takes great pride in.
“It reminded me why I do this — the appreciation of people whose lives you touch.”
And Anne’s advice for anyone considering a career in pharmacy?
“You need to really enjoy interacting with people and caring for them. That’s the heart of it. For me, it’s in my genes — I love my work, however you’re only as good as the people you have on board and I take immense pride in minenone of this would have been possible without the incredible team I’ve built up over the years.”
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