I trained in both adult and paediatric endocrinology because Type 1 diabetes starts in adolescence but the complications occur in adulthood, being naively unaware of the demarcation line. At the Garvan Institute in 1973, John Casey, Les Lazarus, Edward Kraegen and I developed low-dose insulin infusion as a simple but revolutionary treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). This treatment normalised glucose levels over only 6 hours after only 15 units of insulin, disproving that DKA was associated with insulin resistance. It has since been the treatment of choice over the past 50 years.

I then developed protocols for early intervention in hypoglycaemic coma, severe hyperglycaemia and vomiting illnesses at home. This protocol, known as Sick-day management, was adopted around the world and has prevented the acute hospitalization of thousands of children and adults with Type 1 diabetes.

In 1988, I had a light-bulb moment in a lecture on insulin resistance in San Francisco and decided that a common condition of women, the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), presaged Type 2 diabetes and would respond to diet, exercise and metformin therapy. This approach, initially caused widespread controversy in the IVF industry but it restored regular, ovulatory cycles and fertility to thousands of grateful women. I was the third person in the world to publish on metformin therapy in PCOS and my MJA paper was the #2 hit on a Google search on PCOS, after the Wikipedia entry, for many years and accounted for approximately 50% of the hits on the MJA free website at that time. It is now an inexpensive adjunct to therapy in PCOS.

If I did not have an answer to a question from a patient or parent, I would never give a glib or dismissive response. I would state clearly that I do not know BUT I will try to find out. I would search Medline during the consultation. When asked by a mother of three daughters with both congenital myopathy and PCOS about a possible relationship, my persistence led to the discovery of the gene for their condition.

Retirement has brought me great happiness with sculpture and guiding seniors in bushwalking.