Dr Matt Young grew up in Somerset West. He completed his undergraduate medical degree at the University of Cape Town and his internship at Edendale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg where he subsequently worked for 2 years before commencing his training in ophthalmology under Prof Colin Cook. It was while in the United Kingdom that he underwent further training at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading and the Ophthalmology Department of the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford.
After returning to South Africa in 1998, Dr Young took up a position working under the KZN Blindness Prevention Programme in Northern KZN, where he helped to establish four rural eye clinics and a center for cataract surgery at Bethesda Hospital. He moved to Durban in late 1999 to further his training under Prof Anne Peters and graduated as a Fellow of the College of Ophthalmologists of SA in 2002, receiving the Justin van Selm medal for the top qualifying candidate in 2002. He worked as a consultant in the Department of Ophthalmology at UKZN until 2005, when he accepted a position at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, Australia to train in the Vitreoretinal Surgery Unit. In 2006, he returned to Durban to start in practice at Entabeni Hospital. He continues to work as an Honorary Lecturer at UKZN and is a part-time consultant at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital.
Dr Young is a member of the EXCO of the Ophthalmology Society of South Africa (OSSA) and is the secretary of the College of Ophthalmologists of South Africa.
Matt is married to Lauren, who is a General Practitioner in Durban. They have a son and two daughters.
