Dr John F Knight AM, Australia’s multi-media Merry Medic Dr James Wright, passed away on Sunday 27 November. He was 94 years of age.
For as long as he could remember John put words together. His writing career officially began when he was eight. With the help of a borrowed typewriter, he wrote a short story about a children’s church picnic and sent it to the then popular Sunday newspaper, The Sunday Sun.
His piece was accepted and printed. He received five shillings. He went on to write his way through high school and university. It was there he decided to syndicate his work with a newspaper column called Mr Answerman. The column was published in newspapers in Hobart, Brisbane and Port Elizabeth in South Africa.
He’d spend summer holidays sitting in the State Library of NSW writing enough copy to get him through the following academic year.
Despite John’s dreams of being a journalist he studied medicine at University of Sydney where he graduated in 1953. He moved to the NSW rural town of Tottenham to be the local GP.
As the only doctor for over 160 kilometres he became obstetrician, surgeon, counsellor, dispensing pharmacist and local vet.
When he’d saved enough money to purchase a house, he married his long-time sweetheart, Noreen Weslake, and returned to Sydney where he set up his medical practice in Eastwood and North Ryde. He worked in his North Ryde practice as a family GP until he retired in his mid-80s.
Throughout his prolific writing career, his medical columns appeared in a range of popular magazines including Women’s Weekly, Women’s Day, Dolly, and Cleo as well as all Australian capital city masterheads including The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), The Melbourne Herald Sun, The Sunday Mail (Adelaide and Perth), The Brisbane Sunday Mail, The Sunday Territorian (Darwin) and The Sunday Tasmanian (Hobart).
He wrote thirty books, some of which were translated into numerous languages. His last published book was his autobiography Dr James Wright: Adventures of a Merry Medic which was published in 2016. He was 89 years of age at the time.
In 1972 he was invited to appear on the Mike Walsh Show, a popular lunch time television program. He quickly became a regular and stayed with the show when, in 1985, it transferred to Channel 9 and became The Midday Show with Ray Martin.
From television he soon moved into radio where he presented two-hour weekly programs at 2GB and subsequently 2UE.
He was with 2UE for 18 years until he wrapped up talk-back radio when show number 876 went to air in July 2005. By then he’d answered over 20,000 questions from listeners.
For over 40 years his syndicated three minute radio health spots were broadcast every morning to over 70 stations across Australia including the capital cities: 3MP in Melbourne, 4BC Brisbane, 5AD Adelaide, Cruise 1323 Adelaide and 7HO Hobart.
The segments finally came to an end in early September 2021 when episode 10,600 went to air. Many in the industry consider this a radio milestone, most certainly for Australia if not the world, for a health advice series to run for 10,600 tracks and span four decades.
His widespread appeal lay in his unique ability to explain complex medical problems and procedures in clear, simple terms that could be understood by all. He demystified medicine. He took TV cameras into hospital operating theatres and neo-natal intensive care units. He taught a nation about emerging diseases such as HIV-AIDS, and Hepatitis C and sought to destigmatise the prejudices and hysteria that initially surrounded both diseases.
His career spanned a time of significant medical advances and technologies, and he introduced the public to artificial hearts, organ transplants, computerised tomography scans (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and keyhole surgery.
He channelled proceeds from his media work and property development into a charitable foundation he and Noreen established in 1971. The focus of the foundation, known as Medi-Aid Centre Foundation, is to provide subsidised housing for older people who are unable to afford secure accommodation.
Today, the foundation houses 400 people in Sydney and the Gold Coast. Since its establishment over fifty years ago, John has donated over $50 million to the Foundation.
In 1998 John was awarded an Order of Australia for his work in media and philanthropy. His work was again publicly acknowledged when in 2017 he was nominated NSW’s Senior Australian of the Year.
John is survived by his four children and their partners, nine grandchildren (and their partners) and four great grandchildren.
