Australian of the Year

George Jelinek has excelled in two areas of medicine. First, as one of the pioneers of emergency medicine, he developed Australia’s principal textbook in that area and was the first professorial appointment for the discipline. Then, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) eight years ago at the age of 45, George continued his work in emergency medicine but changed the focus of his passion into finding a way to manage and control MS. With characteristic freshness of mind – enquiring deeply, using scientific methods, and then being prepared to accept what he unexpectedly found – George discovered that MS could largely be controlled through lifestyle factors. Good nutrition, exercise, and stress management are as important in MS as they are in heart disease and diabetes. With supportive colleagues, he initiated the world’s first lifestyle MS self-help program in 2002 and shares his findings through his book Taking Control of Multiple Sclerosis.