Dr. James Muecke – ‘Blinded by Sugar’

Dr James Muecke AM is a South Australian based ophthalmologist and visiting consultant at Royal Adelaide and Women’s and Children’s Hospitals. Dr. Muecke graduated with Honours from the University of Adelaide Medical School in 1987. Following his internship, James lived and worked as a doctor in Africa and subsequently as an eye surgeon in the Middle East, battling malaria, wild animals, and rebel soldiers. He founded Sight For All in 2008, turning his boundless energy into a fight against blindness in the Aboriginal communities of Australia and some of the poorest countries of Asia and Africa.

Dr. Muecke's commitment to social impact and humanitarian endeavours has earned him a string of awards. He received an Outstanding Service to the Prevention of Blindness award by the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology in 2011, a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012, a South Australian Community Achievement Award in 2013, the Australian Medical Association’s President’s Leadership Award in 2013, Ernst & Young’s Social Entrepreneur for Australia in 2015 and The University of Adelaide’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019.

In 2020, Dr. Muecke was named Australian of the Year and vowed to use his platform to advocate for measures to tackle preventable blindness caused by diabetes. He has kindly allowed us to re-publish this video to further this fight.