Dr Jeff Stewart was born in 1950 and has lived most of his life in Ballarat.
When polio struck in 1952 Jeff was placed in a hastily provided isolation facility in Ballarat with other sufferers and stayed there for seven months.
Carrying the normal polio outcomes requiring braces etc Jeff started school at age five and followed through primary and secondary education before going on to tertiary education and graduating as an Engineer.
After working in telecommunications and manufacturing Jeff changed to University teaching and moved over time to lead Electrical and Electronics programs and staff.
In the early 1990’s Jeff worked with an external prosthetics expert and a final year degree student to experiment with the use of carbon fibre in calliper construction which was an early use of this approach.
After Post Polio Syndrome (PPS) became apparent at around the age of 48 Jeff moved from academia to running a small consultancy business.
Throughout most of these periods Jeff worked with universities seeking “life experience” examples of living with Polio survivors, as well being available for clinical and community meetings to talk about Polio and PPS.