'Medicine never seemed possible': Loni Schramm, who delivers period products by air, is Australia's medical student of the year

Loni Schramm did not think medicine was for people like her. Now the Flinders University student in the Northern Territory Medical Program has been named the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine's 2026 National Medical Student of the Year, chosen from state award winners at the Rural Medicine Australia conference in Adelaide. Her record explains it: she has led the Top End's Rural Health Club, founded the Central Australian Remote Health Student Society in Alice Springs, developed more than 20 student and community initiatives, run health workshops with Yolŋu communities in Nhulunbuy, and established the Top End Pads Project, which has delivered thousands of donated menstrual products to remote communities through CareFlight NT. 'Working with Northern Territory doctors and First Nations people out in remote communities has made practising medicine here more rewarding than I ever thought possible,' she said.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: individual leader