Country boy who charmed Sydney s arts scene and the Herald s newsroom
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Country boy who charmed Sydney s arts scene and the Herald s newsroom
By Geraldine O Brien
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On January 2, the news ricocheted around the Sydney arts community, and among former
Herald journalists, that Peter Cochrane, a loved friend to many, had been diagnosed with a rare and cruel disease.
Peter Cochrane, former SMH arts and foreign editor.
For the past 12 years, Cochrane had been living happily in Hobart, with his wife, Miranda Harman – another
Herald journalist – and their two young daughters but became suddenly ill in mid-November. It was not until December 18, however, that a diagnosis was made. Cochrane had Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, an illness that afflicts no more than 50 Australians a year. Doctors warned that it would progress rapidly and he had perhaps a couple of months to live.