Dr Sarah Arachchi says from the day she was born, she has been identified by the colour of her skin, “branding my origins like a postage mark on an international envelope: Sri Lanka”.

She and her family left that first island home when she was five, settling in Melbourne, where she perfected an Aussie accent and struggled to work out where she fitted in.

Here in an edited extract from Brown. Female. Doctor. A Memoir, the Melbourne-based paediatrician describes navigating a medical career and training being a woman of colour. She says she has emerged from her patient experiences a more compassionate and courageous doctor.

It was shaping up to be just another typical day on the ward when I met 62-year-old Michael. He lay on his bed, his hands cradled above his head as if he were in deep contemplation of life, a hospital gown barely covering his tall frame.