In 2025, something unprecedented happened: two fantastic members of the profession were awarded the ACA’s prestigious Chiropractor of the Year award, Dr Dein Vindigni and Dr Andrea Huddleston. Here, we highlight Dr Dein’s incredible story.
Two cataclysmic events within the space of seven years set Dr Dein Vindigni on the path that eventually led him to win this year’s Chiropractor of the Year Award. Both these events involved his mother, Frances, a woman he describes as possessing a strong, caring nature.
“My mother always had a heart for love and service,” he explains. “Even now, she’s in aged care, and she walks around always smiling and asking how a person’s day is.”
“Her sense of purpose comes from loving and serving others.”
At the age of five, Dein suffered from constant headaches. These caused him to have concentration issues that soon attracted the attention of his school principal. Called into Dein’s school one day, Frances was given an ultimatum: begin medicating your son or send him to another school.
“The school thought I was bugging it on,” he explains. “My mother told them, ‘I’m not going down the drug path.’ Instead, she took me to one of the earliest chiropractors in Melbourne.”
“I remember it really clearly. He gently put his hands on my neck, took an X-Ray, and said, ‘Dein, I know where your headaches are coming from.’”
“When he was palpating my neck, he was feeling what I was feeling. He gave a couple of adjustments. I haven’t had a headache since that day.”
“That’s what inspired me to become a chiropractor.”
Seven years later, the second cataclysmic event in Dein’s young life occurred. Once again, Frances was at the heart of it. At 12, through Frances’ constant communication with Mother Teresa, Dein and his family met the future Saint.
“She held my hand and kissed me on the forehead. Then she said to me, ‘Dein, when you grow up, I’d like you to come and help me in India. Because I need a lot of help.’”
With no idea who exactly he was talking to, one of the most prominent Catholic figures in modern history and a future Saint, who spent much of her life carrying out missionary work in India, Dein agreed to do as she asked.
Eventually, Dein studied chiropractic at RMIT. By the end of his degree, he was mentally and emotionally run down following a gruelling few years of study. Still, true to his word, he travelled to India with a group called Community Aid Abroad, meeting with the Missionaries of Charity. Yet, a reunion with Mother Teresa did not materialise.
“Ironically, the day I landed in India was the day she flew back to. I never saw her again, but the seed was planted,” Dein says.
Dein’s time in India opened his eyes. In a sea of humanity in Kolkata, he met a woman named Moira Kelly, originally from Essendon, roughly 20 minutes from Dein’s home, who volunteered with the Missionaries of Charity. She was performing some minor surgery on someone who had leprosy.
“I asked her, ‘You must be a nurse or a doctor.’ She was neither. I asked, ‘How come you’re doing the surgery?’ And she said, ‘No one else is doing it,’” he recalls.
The pair began talking, and Moira shared her vision of providing healthcare on-site to children living in poverty in the places they felt safe.
This experience kicked off what he describes as a lifelong journey of privileged service, leading eventually to the formation of the charitable organisation known as Hands on Health Australia.
Many years later, this journey culminated in his recognition as one of the 2025 ACA Chiropractors of the Year for his sustained leadership in research, education, and global community health.
Dein believes his work in Timor-Leste over recent years contributed to his win. Dein and his team received a grant earlier this year to help establish both kinesiotherapy (similar to basic myotherapy), physiotherapy and chiropractic care in Timor-Leste, the 35th poorest nation on Earth, according to Global Finance.
This work came off the back of another program to develop a holistic integrated program in Timor-Leste, Cambodia, and Indonesia, which came to fruition late last year.
“One program unintentionally gave birth to another,” he says. “My late father used to say, ‘Good things happen when good people gather.’”
That program, called the Digital Health Rehabilitation Project (DHHRP), achieved remarkably impactful results. In total, the project upskilled over 200 health workers and provided approximately 5,000 treatments that integrated prosthetics, hands-on therapies, and counselling in Timor-Leste, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Additionally, the project delivered affordable and sustainable healthcare to people living in poverty.
All of which are a result of a story that began many years ago with two friends of Dein’s, Drs Jenny Hallam and Barbara Polus.
“12 years ago, they went to Timor-Leste through Hands On Health Australia on the request of the Timorese people to upskill them in basic soft tissue therapy,” he explains.
“Their physiotherapists were trained in rehab but had limited hands-on skills. In a few weeks, they upskilled several health professionals, including physiotherapists.”
After that trip, they received many requests to return, which couldn’t be facilitated due to a lack of funding, but couldn’t return until two years ago.
Timor-Leste has a high incidence of diseases, including HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, stroke, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cerebral palsy. In this context, training, such as that provided by the Digital Health Rehabilitation Project (DHHRP) team, is critical.
Had it not been for those two cataclysmic events during his childhood, his first chiropractic visit and his interaction with Mother Teresa, there’s every possibility none of it would’ve happened. At the heart of those two interactions, and essentially the life Dein has lived since, is his mother, Frances.
All these moments and experiences culminated in his award on 14 November, though Dein is quick to mention it is far from an individual achievement.
“For me, this award is about the people who’ve given so much, and continue to give,” he says. “And how, in spite of the challenges that surround us as chiropractors, we embrace a vision that’s bigger than ourselves and we have values that unite us and keep us strong.”