After 60 years in the industry, a local pharmacy icon is moving onto her next chapter after selling her Mount Pleasant based business.
Lynette Dupuy started working in a pharmacy at the age of 15, following in her father’s footsteps, and will finish her tenure this weekend.
Ms Dupuy’s father opened K M Dupuy Chemist in Sydney Street in 1934.
He passed away 19 years later and inspired Ms Dupuy to take up the profession to keep the family business going.
“I was 12 or 13 and then my fate was sealed,” she said.
Travelling to Brisbane to acquire her registration, Ms Dupuy worked in Brisbane and Cairns, all the while owning the family pharmacy.
She and her husband opened a new pharmacy in Mount Pleasant before building the current pharmacy in 1996.
Throughout her 60 years in the industry, Ms Dupuy specialised in a variety of areas including clinical nutrition, medicine compounding and vaccinations.
“All of those sorts of things I enjoy because originally I wanted to do medicine,” she said.
“I enjoy looking after people.
“I’ve had people coming in here the last few days begging me to stay.
“In all those things that I do, people come in here and ask me something and I usually know the answer.
“My brain never stops!”
The industry has changed aplenty over the years and Ms Dupuy has seen it all, striving to stay on top of the evolution of pharmacy.
“When I became a pharmacist – I’ve still got some of my dad’s books – it was the end of writing things in books in pharmacy; we started using a computer and software,” she said.
“It’s been a progression to the state it is now that everything is becoming electronic over the period of about 10 years.”
Ms Dupuy’s career has taken her across the world, with pharmacy conferences leading her and her husband to over 80 countries.
“I’ve made a lot of friends in Australia, Canada, England, everywhere,” she said.
“I enjoyed the company of pharmacists, doctors and physiotherapists.
“I enjoyed interacting with other people outside Mackay and I learnt a lot.”
Travel is one thing that Ms Dupuy hopes to do more of in the future.
“I’m looking forward to having Easter off, being with my family, going to see plays, going to do things, that’s what I’m looking forward to,” she said.
While she looks forward to retirement, she’s considering returning to the workforce in either clinical nutrition or pharmacy, plans to write books about her family history and her career and may even further her study.
“After about three months, I’ll make a decision,” she said.
“I just want some time to myself.”
This weekend is Lynette Dupuy’s last weekend as a full-time pharmacist. Photo credit: Sam Gillespie
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