Valerie Smith Cohen was born on Stuart Island in 1936. When the welfare people came around, Cohen Smith's father would take her and her sisters up the river and they'd stay for two to three months at a time. Her father taught them how to get bush tucker and seafood.
In the 1980s when her children were grown, Cohen Smith enrolled at Sydney University to study Social Sciences. After graduating, she went to work at Armidale Hospital but found the enforced limited time for each patient too restricting and so ventured out on her own doing volunteer health work.
Cohen Smith now works with Rex Marshall (q.v.) in the area from Grafton to Wauchope and out to Port Macquarie.
