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Shortland Street character - Brooke Freeman

Brooke Freeman is a study in fire and ice. 

Brooke initially comes to Shortland Street as a locum GP. She is only recently qualified, but gives every impression of being competent, confident and ambitious. 

The truth is that Brooke finds general practice a chore, and sometimes struggles to maintain her professional façade through the minor coughs and aches and pains. 

However, she wants the experience on her CV and is resigned to part-time GP work for a few more years, while she completes her GP consultancy training and specialises in dermatology. 

When not working as a locum GP, Brooke works in various local cosmetic clinics, mostly doing botox, liposuction and laser skin treatments. 

It's boring, but lucrative work, and Brooke plans to one day open her own cosmetic clinic - and make some serious money. 

Shortly after joining the team at Shortland Street, Brooke caught the attentions of both Kip Denton and Chris Warner. Chris eventually won Brooke's favour, and she moved into his house.

However, Brooke felt her romance with Chris was hampered by his son, Harry. The relationship eventually unravelled and Brooke turned to old lover Dr Ethan Pierce for comfort.

Ethan rejected Brooke's advances, and several days later, he was shot by an unidentified assassin. Brooke was questioned by the cops but her alibi stood firm. 


Then Brooke's father Grant Marsden came back to Ferndale. She and her mother had been abandoned by him when Brooke was a teenager.

He had been convicted of insider trading and then escaped off shore, leaving Brooke and her mother penniless.

Brooke was always convinced that he had money overseas which he kept from them. Her friend (and then-lover) Kieran Mitchell  helped her pull off a scam to claim back some of her father's hidden fortune.

Brooke schemed her way into the top job (HOD) at the Primary Care Clinic, at the expense of fellow GP TK Samuels . 

Her financial stake in plastic surgery outfit The Dumont Clinic saw her desperately juggling time away from the PCC at the expense of her patients. The Dumont clinic went under.

Brooke turned to schmoozing CEO Callum McKay in order to stay in his good books. Eventually Callum left his estranged wife Justine for Brooke.

Their relationship was a rocky one and very on/off.  The two broke up late in 2009. 

Brooke moved into TK and Sarah's house and set about trying to undermine their marriage. When Sarah left TK, Brooke was around to offer comfort to TK. 

But the relationship was shortlived when needy Brooke tried to get pregnant and failed. TK let her down gently.

With the closure of the PCC,  Brooke got a job at Shortland Street on the medical ward.

Her mother Annette turned up in Ferndale mid 2010. Brooke struggled to get her into a rehab facility for alcoholics.

While she was battling with this, she had a brush with suspected ovarian cancer. 

Late 2010, she found started seeing ambitious surgeon, Dr Isaac Worthington.

When Isaac performed an illegal surgery on a East European criminal (for a lot of money), Brooke helped cover up the crime by discrediting anaesthetist Luke Durville.

Isaac fled the country.

Then Brooke slept with a leading Asthma researcher at a conference.

He died after spending the night with Brooke and she stole his research findings and is passing them off as her own.

Mid 2011, Brooke gained a research assistant Winston Youn, who eventually discovered Brooke's secret.

Then Lars Hammett's wife Nadia appeared in Ferndale, asking questions about Brooke's research and her connection to Lars' death.

Nadia was killed in a car crash before she could out Brooke's secret. Brooke confessed to the police but they had no evidence to charge her.

Auditor Alex Murphy came to oversee Brooke's research - and the two discovered they had known each other as children.

Alex and Brooke eventually became a couple although Winston tried to get in the way.

Alex asked Brooke to marry him and he even offered to move with her to Paris after she received a job offer from her research company. But the job offer came with conditions and Brooke  had to wrestle with her conscience once again.

Brooke decided to do the right thing and blow the whistle on Tan Chee but it was too late and Alex dumped Brooke when he realised she hadn't been honest with him.

She was fired from Tan Chee and is back working as a GP.

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