This week marked the 8 August 2018 — Wednesday. That date is ten years ago that I arrived for an epic adventure in Manhattan and lived there for three months. How fortunate I was and still feel to have immersed myself in that brilliant city, if only for a short time. I’m sure like me, you can all recount moments where you have felt fortunate. Whether its to travel, new job success, expanding your knowledge through study or overall walking new foreign lands both metaphoric and literal, it all creates and contributes to your independent footprint for living.
For me NYC gave me the desire to live elsewhere overseas and less than two short years later I found myself living abroad this time in the UK. Using London as my base I worked and travelled. Photos of my trip to Ibiza popped up on my Time-hop App, this week a destination I was in love with at the time I visited and it was made possible because I had saved money from the contract role I was doing back in London.
Working with differently-abled people shifts your perspective
At the time, I was a Communications Lead tasked to assist a team in Barnet (North London) to determine what the “Right to Control” looked like for people who lived with disability. The idea was that the local council was merging with other government agencies and providers to help people have more choice and control over their disability payments. To redesign a system that enabled them to use their disability payments from individual sources and pool them to create more meaningful ways to spend it,specific to them. Part of the pilot program was co-designing services with those people who would use them, the ones struck, living with disability in their daily lives. One fellow who I encountered throughout this process, has never left my memory and forever changed how I view disability.
How John reached me
His name is John. At the time we met, he wasn’t yet 30, I think maybe 28. He is a quadriplegic, and like many of us, he is an adventurer. John was chosen as a ‘poster child’ for our campaign because of his story. You see, at age 17, upon finishing his equivalent to the HSC/Senior Cert, he and his mates took a trip to Greece. Obviously excited to be finished his study he was relaxing with his friends,beach-side when he took a dive in some very shallow water…he didn’t come up. Hence his quadriplegic state, almost a decade later. Can you imagine how life for John would have to change? One of the biggest challenges he and his family faced, was where to house John. Post the initial trauma of the accident his apparent and very real high care needs became the dictating force as to where he was able to live and it was throughout our program running that we celebrated John’s move into a more customized independent living situation (a cabin style apartment, I think it was — with other younger people nearer by.)
Many people might not have realised or heard me speak of the impact working on that 14 month project /campaign had on me, but it’s over 7 or 8 years later and I still think of John often and see him as a success story. What stuck with me most though, is how easily our lives can change in an instant and what we must be grateful for in our lives, filled with independence.
Australians’ wake up to the differently-abled desire for independence
So when,Today Show presenter, Sylvia Jeffreys became an Ambassador for QLD Founded Charity, YoungCare, a few years ago I took notice. This is an excellent cause, I thought. Similar to John’s situation people like him could be helped here in Australia. Not only young people, but others hampered before the age of 60 with debilitating and sometimes devastating illness, who wouldn’t be supported by family housing, or who wouldn’t flourish in an aged-care style facility, NO, here was a charity motivated to provide housing similar to the likes of what John received. Yes!!
Championing YoungCare Australia
So, if you’re still reading, thank you. That’s my story, that’s my reason WHY as to how I came to choose to run alongside the RED ARMY (Youngcare Australia’s City 2 Surf running squad.) I’ve managed to raise almost $765 thanks to some awesome empathetic friends. My goal was $700 and now I’ve broken that barrier, I’m keen to make it higher. No donation is too small…because if you’re like me, I’m sure you can think of a friend, acquaintance or family member who would benefit from the services YoungCare provide, so please consider donating to this very worthwhile charity.
