Campaign stories

Maria & Gerard

Born with Down Syndrome, Gerard is a young man with many goals in life, one of which is to get a good job, and the second, to become a famous actor. Maria started working with Gerard at the beginning of 2008 and the two of them quickly built a solid working relationship. A relationship built largely on a strong trust in one another and Maria’s unflagging faith in Gerard’s potential to succeed.

Within a short time Maria and Gerard worked together to achieve his goals, with Gerard winning the coveted best male actor award at the Australian Tropfest short film awards and securing a part time job at McDonalds.

Now they both share the same philosophy in life, and that is, in Gerard’s words “To follow your dreams and go for it. Help other people. Help them to communicate. Help them to solve their problems and their other upsets. Help them to keep going.” Read more about Maria & Gerard's story.
 

Ken & Ange

Ken was the manager of a steel powder coating plant until, at the age of 44, he felt an overwhelming need to do something more worthwhile - to be more involved with his community. He applied for a job at The Spastic Centre and got it. That was 14 years ago and that’s where he began caring for Ange.

Ange has Cerebral Palsy, is in a wheelchair and cannot talk. Their main method of communicating is by using the alphabet. Ange moves her head either to the left (which means start at A) or to her right (which means start at L) Ken then calls out the alphabet A, B, C, D, etc until she moves her head indicating the letter she wants. Then comes the next letter, and the next and so on. It sounds time consuming, and it is, but after 10 years together they’ve got it down to a fine art.

One of Ange’s true passions is a ball game called Boccia which Ken assists her with. It is one of the very few times in Ange’s life where she has total control of what’s going on as Ken can do nothing and makes no decisions until Ange gives him an instruction. Thanks to their unique teamwork and absolute trust in each other Ange has won the national title three times in a row, but she hasn’t finished there. Now she has her eye on the biggest prize of all, a gold medal at the Paralympics.

But perhaps the greatest reward comes to Ken as he says in his own words ”Seeing her each day and the courage she shows really helps me in my life everyday.” Read more about Ken & Ange's story.
 

Linda & Mr Lam

Born in Malacca in 1913 Mr Lam has experienced a lot in his 96 years, with many ups and downs, bitter and sweet.

Having moved with his father at an early age to live in Beijing, he later worked as a teacher until exchanging the pen for the sword as China went to war.

At the rise of the communist party he found himself unable to live under their ideals and moved to Hong Kong where he first owned a farm, then worked in a bank, before eventually settling in his favourite place of all, Australia.

Although in his nineties, Mr Lam’s brain still functions as well as ever and he still has an active lifestyle, as a member of his local bowling club, a keen gardener and practitioner of Tai Chi.

But ever since his wife passed away he sometimes feels lonely. A loneliness alleviated by his paid care workers’ visits, because to Mr Lam the simple act of sitting, talking and joking about life brings him all the happiness he needs.

And funnily enough, even though he has almost a century of life experience to share, he believes he learns more from his paid care staff than they do from him. Find out more about Linda & Mr Lam's story.