Dr Jean Pascal Tshamala had only a week to live but insisted on continuing to see his young patients.

Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer late last year, by September, the paediatrician was carrying an oxygen tank to his Sydney clinic and hospital wards to overcome his breathing difficulties.

“I don’t know if patients knew this, but he would see one patient and have a gap between appointments to sleep,” says his brother, Didier, also a paediatrician, who works at Redcliffe Hospital in Brisbane.

“We were all against what Jean was doing. We said, with what little energy you have, you have to focus on recovery, but he could not be persuaded.