Arabic version: تسمية هيلين لاميك شخصية العام الأسترالية لعام 2027 في الإقليم الشمالي
According to ABC News, diabetes educator and nurse Helen Lamech has been named the Northern Territory’s 2027 Australian of the Year for her work improving diabetes care in Central Australia.
Lamech has worked in the Northern Territory for more than 30 years and has spent the past decade seeking to reduce diabetes rates and improve outcomes for people with the disease. She established Central Australia’s first nurse-led diabetes clinic in Alice Springs and regularly travels to remote communities, where diabetes affects up to two in five adults.
She estimates she has treated and helped educate more than 5,000 people in the NT and mentored more than 300 health professionals. Lamech said she meets people in homes, schools and parks to discuss preventing and managing diabetes, and hopes to take her advocacy to the national stage.
Four other Territorians were recognised at the 2027 NT Australian of the Year Awards ceremony in Darwin. Pat King, 74, was named NT Senior Australian of the Year for decades of community service, including volunteer work during Cyclone Tracy and her current role providing confidential support to police officers as a volunteer chaplain.
Katherine volunteer Taitt Green, 18, received the NT Young Australian of the Year award after contributing to responses to fires, floods and cyclones. Majors Niall and Michelle Gibson were named NT Local Heroes for visiting about 80 remote cattle stations, schools, police stations, health centres and outback towns each year as Salvation Army remote chaplains. The NT winners will join state and territory recipients at the national awards in Canberra on January 25.
