Bionic ear pioneer Graeme Clarke was in Sydney for just five hours but still managed to enthrall the Inspiring People crowd by revealing how he came to faith and started his medical career through the appendix, not the ear.

Family illness meant Professor Clarke had to jet in from Melbourne just before the event, one of the keynote lunches of the Inspiring People series held over four weeks in Sydney, Parramatta, North Sydney and Wollongong.

More than 1400 people have attended the series which ended on Thursday 15th October with a lunchtime panel at Wesley Theatre featuring football great Steve Mortimer, former SAS chief Jim Wallace and businessman Simon Pillar.

Despite the rush from the airport, Professor Clarke looked at ease with sports stars Nick Farr-Jones and Allison Shreeve. It turned out that Clarke at least had made the first team in high school, while Rugby great Farr-Jones was relegated to the seconds. In contrast, Shreeve, the three-time world windsurfing champion, had played 11 sports at school.

But the biggest surprise was that the pioneer of the bionic ear had once specialised in appendicitis, not ears. In fact, the story of his faith was intertwined with the appendix.

“I went away on a student camp and during a quiet time we were asked to invite Jesus into our life. And I thought ’ There’s no harm in that.’  (laughter) I did and felt the reality of this. Then It slipped away a bit . Then I became very good, dare I say it, at taking our appedices. I came back as a ship’s surgeon and on board ship I got the signs and symptoms of appendicitis and I thought I would have to operate on my own appendix, in the middle of the Mediterranean, with only the bosun to help me. And he was not a nice guy.(laughter) So I prayed about it. For the first time really got down in desperation and prayed.”

Professor Clarke then shared with the audience the highs and lows of developing the Cochlear implant. He said at no time did he think of giving up, but there were some ‘low points’.

In all, forty prominent Australians were invited to take part in the Inspiring People series, hosted by one of the leaders of the Jesus all about Life campaign Karl Faase and featuring comments by Dr John Dickson.

Dr Dickson’s course, The Life of Jesus, was offered at each event and more than 175 people have expressed interest in attending.

Logistics and staff support was provided by the City Bible Forum network.

Connect09 executive director Andrew Nixon is pleased with the response.

““We knew we needed to do something extra to reach the half million people in the CBD’s. Karl, John and City Bible Forum all came on board to help create events that could touch those who don’t have contact with our church networks. That was the most satisfying aspect of the project, that people came by themselves simply because they’d seen the advertising and wanted to hear a speaker they respected.”