THE CONFAB WITH MICHAEL G IN CONVERSATION WITH CHERYL HARRIS

Cheryl has been instrumental in driving volunteer engagement and championing the important work that volunteers perform on the Sunshine Coast. 

 Cheryl is the current chair/president of Healthy Ageing Partnerships, which aims to empower older Australians to make informed decisions about their health through knowledge sharing.  

 Cheryl’s contribution to community service and dedication to helping others in a manner that is compassionate, informed and caring was recognised in her being awarded QLD Senior Australian of the Year.

Join me on the ConFab to gain an understanding of her life story and passions.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to the Confab with Michael G on the People Powered Radio 2XFM 98.3. We're streaming online and on demand on 2xfm.org.au. Tonight our guest is Cheryl. She is the current president of Healthy Aging Partnerships, which aims at empowering older Australians to make informed decisions about their health through knowledge sharing. Tonight we're going to learn a little bit about Cheryl's life journey and passions. Welcome to the Confab with Michael G. Before we kick off the programme tonight, would you like to introduce track one? Who are the performers and why did you select it?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

I selected Andrew Andre Picelli and Sarah Brighton with the song Time to Say Goodbye. Sarah Brighton I loved when she did Phantom of the Opera. I think that was one of my favourite shows that I've ever seen in uh Brisbane. And and Andre Picelli, I just love his voice. I think he is an amazing man. Um, and I love the words of time to say goodbye. It probably takes me back to a few times in my life.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Cheryl, welcome to Two Double X. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

I'm very well, thank you, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

It's a pleasure to have you on tonight, and it's also a pleasure to have someone who has been recognized for their wonderful work up in Queensland and being uh was it this year or last year that you were uh nominated and received that award?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

I was nominated last year and uh had to go to Brisbane on the 12th of November, um, but it's for the 2026 year.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Well, reading your CV, it's a well-deserved award and congratulations on behalf of the people listening to our podcast and our and our broadcast tonight. Now, Cheryl, you talked a little bit before we started our recording that you can remember way back to your primary school days, but I'm gonna take you back a little bit further than that. Your mum and dad, what is their background?

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Um my dad was actually born in South Africa and uh moved up to Rhodesia where I was born, which is now Zimbabwe. He must have moved up about 1940 or it would have been after the Second World War, anyway, I know that, because I've got a brother who was born in 1947 in a place called Guelo, which was also in Zimbabwe. So and Mum Mum was also born in uh she was actually born in a place called Simonstown in in the Cape of South Africa, and as a youngster had moved up to Zimbabwe and obviously married my dad, and they were both very uh very um normal everyday home bodies. We were four children in all. I had an uh um two older brothers and then a younger sister who was seven years younger, and we always called her the baby of the family. Uh, and it not one of us were born in the same place. So I always think my dad and his previous life must have been a little bit of a gypsy because we had lived in, I was actually born in something called Umtali, now Mutari, and that was eastern part of some uh an area, a province as they call it, which is a bit like our states, called Manika Land. I don't really remember much of my time as I was a baby when we left Amtali, and then I moved to Bulau, which I always classified as home. I went to school there, went to junior school there, went to high school there, and at one stage I'd even lived in South Africa as a kindergarten or kindy, and they were wonderful years, really. Mum and dad, uh, we were certainly not from a rich family in any way. They worked very hard, and we lived probably like everybody else, even here in Australia, a three-bedroom home, one bathroom, and uh we were always very happy as children. We would play in mud and do all those things, play with marbles and what have you. My junior school was at a school called Coglin in Bullo. And I actually went from standard one through to standard five, um, which is what we would call them in in that time frame.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Can I take you back a little bit to your mum and dad? Uh what was your mum and what was your father employed as? Is did he have a professional? Was he just uh what was his career moves?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

No, my my dad really was a salesman and uh a sales rep. And to be honest with you, I can recall that he had quite a number of uh sales jobs over a period of time. And I can recall there were times he was selling things like vacuum cleaners for electrolux, and I can recall he'd sold insurance, and mum mum used to work for a uh Christian company who were a printing organization. She worked in the office, loved her job, and um yeah, everyday people. There was there was certainly no airs and graces with them, very authentic in in what they did. Um, and as I said, lived in a three-bedroom home that we you know we moved around periodically, uh, obviously with my dad and the work that he had. Unfortunately, I do recall as a child my father ended up having a drinking problem. And I I try and equate that to understanding why, because obviously when you're very young, you don't really see it. But as one grows older, you do. And when he drank, especially if he drank spirits, he wasn't the nicest person to know. So my mum really, I think for me particularly my memories. Um, my mum was a very special person in our lives. She always tried to protect us when we were very young. And my grandparents who were alive, they were my mum's parents who lived in Bloyo. Our grandparents did a lot for us as children. And and that's really what I remember about mum and dad. Sometimes my dad could have absolutely phenomenal jobs, but if he went on a drinking spree, many a time he would lose his job. And so hence we would move around occasionally. And those memories of uh, you know, when he was sober, he he was the nicest person, he would give you the shirt off his back. But I think alcohol can change people, and the change is not always the best.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Now you talked a little bit about your primary school. What was that like? Well, I mean, you were you in many primary schools because of being moved around, or were you in one principal primary school?

SPEAKER_00 11:18

I always classify my school in Bulloy as probably being the longest one I was at. So that's the one that really sticks in my mind a lot. And you know, I loved I I loved my school. I loved the the kids that we got to be friends with, and uh there were many teachers, and I think as a uh probably from my very early days in school, I remember having a teacher, um, and I'm not sure if I should mention her name, but um Miss Alexander, and she was wonderful, and she really sticks out in my mind as being quite a kind, caring woman. Um, I can recall having one that wasn't so kind and was not uh she was quite aggressive in her own way, but I think what we see when we're young is perhaps what we perceive. It may not always be correct. Because I think we can be very gullible as young young people. We don't always realize what's going on in somebody's life, maybe. So we we just assume that person doesn't, you know, doesn't like us for some reason. But most of my most of my memories of school were lovely. I mean, I as I said, I used to love playing sport, I used to l enjoy swimming, I used to you know, enjoy things like hockey when I played it at school, having your breaks and just having fun with the other kids in the classroom. I sort of did average at school, I can't say I was the brainiest kid in school.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

But Cheryl, was that school given your part b going to school in that part of the world? At that point in time, was it a mixed race, mixed colour school or not?

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Not at that time. Um there's a school was and and they certainly we weren't sort of brought up to be racialistic in any way whatsoever, but the school was mostly white children from average homes. Some of them were once I got to high school, were actually sent to boarding school because they might have been farmers' children who lived out of, you know, lived too far to attend a school. Um, and even I became a boarder at one stage in my high school because my parents were living in in what was or is Malawi. And um so there I couldn't go to a high school where they were living. And I know I went to a boarding school for quite some time in one of my years at high school. But we we were all happy, you know, because even even as children growing up, I can recall some of the one of the areas we lived in was an area called Kami, and it was out of town. There were people with probably small holdings rather than a farm. And we would go and play in the paddock with the the cows and the we'd even ask to milk them occasionally. So, you know, I think life was life was good. And I would I often think our lives there at that time would have been very, very similar to what life was like here in Australia. There would have been a lot of similarities.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Now, Cheryl, you're talking about on all white school. So in any of the in your early years in primary school and in the moves around that you that your mum and dad took you into those situations, did you w was there segregation in in the areas that you were living in? Was that a an issue at that time?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

I wouldn't say it was a forced uh segregation of any description. Um you had a lot of African people who were they lived out in in some very out of you know, outlying areas, so they were maybe far from towns. There a lot of them would have worked on the farms, and I I certainly never grew up or remember the earlier part of my life until I was married. Um we we would have mixed if you were on a farm and there were some African children, you would have played with them. There was never any segregation or you weren't allowed, you know, we we were never told, oh, we can't play with so and so. We were taught you respect everybody irrespective of race, colour, creed. And in the earlier part of my married life, once I married, uh my husband was in the army, and obviously in the earlier part, probably the eighties particularly, yes, we did have terrorism and because people I know a lot of people feel that we never had terrorism, but we actually did. And you had people like China and Russia who were training a lot of the African people to use FNs and how they could set bombs and all that kind of thing, but it wasn't something that that I can honestly say I grew up ever feeling that I was being segregated, particularly from another colour.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

I'm gonna take you now back to your high school. You were saying that you spent one year away at boarding school. So where did you spend most of your high school time again? And were you moving constantly during high school or or not?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

No, I I I went to a school called Evelyn as a high school, and I was a a boarder there for a year that my folks were in Malawi. And luckily my grandparents, as I said earlier, were living in Bulaway. And so often if I had a you know a weekend that I could spend with them, I would obviously go and spend it with my grandparents. I would go home for a longer school holiday, whether it was a three-week one or a six-week one that we had in December, and again my high school. Um, I I went to Evelyn for many quite a quite a number of years, and then I actually finished my high school in a school called North Lee, which was in a completely different area of Bulaway where I grew up. And Bulaway was a beautiful city. We had the most amazing central park area with a beautiful fountain. This the roads were exceptionally wide because that when Bulaway was founded, it was they always tried to ensure that the oxen and their trailer would be able to do a turn in the street. So there were very wide streets, which was uh something that I have never forgotten. And you still had parking, whether it was in the center or the two sides of of Boulevard. And it it really was a beautiful place to grow up in. And we never had to think twice about walking anywhere or, you know, going to the pool on our own or going to a movie or whatever it was. We never had to worry about that. The only times that that probably became an issue would have been during our times of terrorism. But but high school, I love. The only thing I I remember is my very first incident at high school in boarding school was a lot of the kids when you first start, they apple pie your bed as they used to call it. And so you when you got in, instead of getting into double sheets, they had flipped the one sheet up. So, you know, you'd only get a portion of your leg in, and you'd think, Oh my goodness, why can't I get in? There's something wrong. And then they'd be killing themselves with laughter because they've pinned the sheets in a way that you couldn't get in, and they'd stuck all sorts of things in, like hairbrushes and what have you, in the the sheets. So, you know, that to them was their way of uh welcoming you, welcoming you into a boarding school. And we did have a lot of fun and laughter. There were times obviously you were very sad because you were away from your your parents, but overall we did have fun. Although I can also recall one night we were given the opportunity of going to a concert and it was all classical music. And I think I felt uh quite a few of them fell asleep. They weren't really interested. It was just the fact you could get out for the the evening. So kids, you get up to all sorts of mischief, you know that. We all do that when we're young. But it was all good, clean fun. We never we never really did crazy things, you know. We we love uh my brothers, I can recall, especially my second eldest brother, we had such a love for making things like models, model airplanes, or we did Henry VIII, and I can recall doing an Apache Indian with him on a horse, and then we'd paint it afterwards. So we'd have all that sort of stuff around our bedrooms, and we had great fun doing that. And then times when I can recall for my grandparents, who I absolutely adored, you know, every time it was my poor grandmother's birthday. Don't know if you ever had where you could buy plaster of Paris in these molds and you could fill the mold full of plaster of Paris, and then my poor grandmother must have got so many of these from us as kids for her birthday. You know, when I think about it now, I think, oh my goodness gracious me. You know, we thought we were just absolutely the bears' knees giving them things like that. And they were always so lovely and saying, Oh, that's so wonderful, Sherry, because my family always called me Sherry. That was so wonderful. We really I didn't s I love it, you know. But whether whether they really did or not, I don't know, but it was was a it was fun. It was really fun.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Now, Cheryl, you talked a bit about having a a wonderful teacher in primary school. Did that did you have any anybody in high school in that period of time in your high school years that really inspired you or gave you some, you know, just something that was someone who was memorable?

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Um of teachers at high school, I mean I really Enjoyed most of them. I can't say that that's what uh impacted my life. I think it was my grandparents who impicked who impacted my life more, and my mum. They were wonderful role models for me and right up until they passed away. So, you know, I um I said earlier, I think we grew up, especially with mum, uh, growing up, we had lots of love and laughter in our home. And having older brothers, well, you know, they used to tease one and all that kind of thing. We'd bake with my mother or and my my grandparents when I my grandmother used to make clothes for me, but from a teacher's perspective at high school, I can't say that there was one in particular who really stuck in my mind. No.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

And Cheryl, was there any expectation by yourself, your mum, your dad, your grandparents that you would progress beyond high high school?

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Mum always used to say to us growing up, you know, all I want from you is to do your best and try and make sure that you are listening to what you're being taught. Um, look out for other people. And I think that really stuck with me. I um the other thing that my mum always said to me when I was young was never become a victim in life. If you can do anything in life, make sure you raise, you know, rise above it. So we were always taught to try and you know help others. Whether that was at school and somebody was being bullied or they had no friends, you try and be a friend to them. And if someone else in the family does well, don't be jealous of what they achieve. You know, everyone is different. And you must just remain yourself. Don't try and be somebody you can't be. And unfortunately, because we were not in that financial position that you know you could maybe think of even going to a university when I grew up, it was more around you were grateful if you got a job, and you did that job to the best of your ability. And you certainly, if you could learn and and do better for yourself, go for it. And I think that really always resonated with me is that just be your authentic authentic self. Don't try and be something you can't or or become big headed about things. We were taught to be humble in our time, and I I I'm very grateful for that. I did lose my mum at a very young age. I was only 20. I was married. I had um just had my son, and my mum had been in Bullo at the time. She never got to the nursing home because the day she was going to come up and see me, my husband and I had taken her to my eldest brother, and unfortunately the next he came um my late husband, Eric, took me to the nursing home. And on the the following morning, Mum was going to come up, my brother was going to bring her, and then his car battery wasn't working. And by that time, it was just too late for her to then come. And she caught a train to go back to Botswana, where she was actually living at that time with my dad. And three weeks later she was she had died. And I mean, that was a huge shock for all of us because uh, you know, we didn't expect mum who we'd only seen three weeks before, healthy, laughing, and then suddenly she wasn't there, and she never got to see my son who was born, and that was that was quite a trauma, but it was the having my grandparents and my mum's two sisters who also happened to live in the same town. We we were very close, and we used to go every weekend to my grandparents on a Sunday and have afternoon tea, and the whole family would be there with the cousins, and we'd have lots of fun and laughter. And um I think my mum's younger sister and I became very close, and I also respected my mum's elder sister and both of them. If I ever needed advice, they would certainly be there for me. So I'm very, very grateful for that.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Now on that note, we're going to pause because we're going to cover more of that in part two. Would you like to introduce your second track? Who is the performer and why did you select it?

SPEAKER_00 26:50

My second one would have been Ed Sheeran and Andrew Bacelli. I actually love the music from um Andrea Bacelli. I think he is brilliant with what he does, but he's also um I think he's a great singer. And Ed Shearan, I actually do enjoy quite a bit of his music, and I just thought that particular song, I I love it, I love the words. Um, because often it's the words that I I seem to look at when I'm listening to any any music.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

I found a love for me. Just dive right in. Follow my lead. Beautiful and sweet. I never knew you were someone waiting for me. Cause we were just kids when we fell in love, not knowing what it's I wouldn't give. Just kids your eye. And in your eyes, your favorite two of the favorite whisper and eat my breath, la mia donna, la forza delle onde del mare, i miei soli, i miei segreti, la porta.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Cheryl, welcome to 2DX again. It's been a pleasure listening to your young your young life story, but now we're going to focus on your adult life and why why you've landed in such a role that you've had. Now you talked a little bit about your mum passing away and the strength that was drawn from the relationships you had. Was that time in your life traumatic, or did you think you grew you gained strength from that period of time?

SPEAKER_00 32:06

It was a very traumatic time mum passed. I think more so because my two brothers and I were trying to go down when we got the news that she was in hospital. And unfortunately, we didn't get our visas in time. So the day we were due to go is the day mum passed. Um, and whilst it has been a huge trauma, I always remember mum saying, Don't become the victim. And having my grandparents and my aunts around me was fantastic and probably has kept me going. There's never a day I don't think of my mother, and there's never a day that I wish I could have a bit more time with her. But I always think back to her teaching me, learn to pick your feet up, keep going, and that's what I've tried to do throughout my life.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Now, Cheryl, can we focus on perhaps two parts of your life journey? Perhaps the part of your life when you're over in that part of the world, uh African part of the world, and then we'll talk a little bit about your life in Australia. What was your journey like before you moved to Australia?

SPEAKER_00 33:18

I mentioned I was married to somebody who was in the army. Um, and so during my time of of living it, we lived for quite a period of time in married quarters in um in a place that was 15 miles out of town called Llewellyn Barracks. And um that was the first part of my life there, and I was working at the time for a company that used to uh sell swimming pool equipment and chlorine, and we even used to pack our own chlorine, and I can remember having to go down into a room that we would use to to pack the chlorine and have to wear a mask because it was it wasn't the greatest. And because I live 15 miles out of town, you had to have that drive. And after a couple of years, I had two children. I had a daughter, Colette, and a son, Daryl. And I've been very blessed with my children. I have two wonderful children. My years of being in the army with my husband Eric were really great times because the camaraderie amongst the forces is incredible. And eventually, once things started heating up in the way of um terrorism, we then, as women, we would certainly be helping each other within our married quarters, um, making sure that, you know, if one went shopping, there were probably three or four three others going at the same time. And the husbands would be away three months of a uh three months at a time, back ten days out again. And I still worked, and I I remember going from working with the swimming pool company. I eventually got a job in a tool company and worked there for quite a long time. And that was I used to import and export a lot of the tools that would come into the country. And then my next job after that was working for a glass company called Plate Glass in those days, and um worked myself up into a managerial position, which was fantastic. My husband was transferred from Llewellyn to Brady Barracks, and then from there we were moved to Wankey and Salisbury uh uh Harare now, Salisbury. Um, so we also moved around a little bit in the army. But when I was early sort of 20, I started, and we were still living in Bullaway and had moved to Brady Barracks. I had started volunteering in a uh disability group, which I I worked with some of these young children, and it was great fun. And what I found was I'm terrible at drawing, but Eric had a gift he could draw quite well. So often they would ask me. Remember, one of the youngsters asked me one day for a horse, and I said, Look, I'll go home and draw one. And when I got home, I said to him, Look, you're gonna have to help me because I I'm good at drawing stick figures, but I'm not too much good at anything else. And he did a beautiful picture of a horse which I took in, and that child was so excited he had this horse. Um, and that probably got me on my journey of volunteering. Um, even though when you think about it, having lived in an army camp, you were probably doing a certain amount of volunteering with all the women that you were helping out, either with, as I said, whether it was that you were all going shopping together or it could have been you were picking up school kids or dropping school kids. And I think often even here people don't see that as volunteering, but it's a a way of informal volunteering, really. So our times there were also quite interesting. We then left Zimbabwe in 1980, moved to South Africa to a place called Petersburg. We were living there about 18 months, had been to visit friends in Johannesburg for a weekend, and on our way back home, unfortunately somebody hit us head on, and my husband died within 15 minutes, and the children and I ended up in a hospital with eye injuries. That was another trauma to contend with, another trauma to try and cope with. And I I know that I've always felt that there was no goodbye because one minute you were a family laughing in a car, and the next the he wasn't there. And it did have a huge impact on my children losing their dad. After a number of years or a few years, I remarried, and my husband and I then moved across to Australia, and I've now lived here 34 years.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

What so what brought you to Australia? Was it you were trying to escape the environment in Africa or just an opportunity that that came across?

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Well, my second husband, Ken, his family were living here. He had a a mum who was um living over in Budram, and he had a brother and he had a sister who were living here. He was not really happy about the situation. Um he felt that there was a lot of crime, and uh he also felt that it was time that he wanted to spend with his mum, particularly as she was aging. And I didn't have my mum by then, I didn't have my husband, my first husband, I'd lost my grandparents by then. So um we then put our application in to move across here. But it wasn't such an easy process. It probably took us six years. He was a tradesman, he was an electrician, and so that's what he'd applied under. Um, but it took us quite a while to be accepted. And in fact, we did, I think, three times of your medical that you had to do, and AIDS tests and police clearance and all of that for the immigration. But eventually, after six years, we were advised that we were given a visa. That was fantastic in one sense, but for me it was a really hard decision because we had applied as a family of four to come over with my two children. And by the time that the six years was up, those children were now over 18 and both working. And I we received a letter saying they couldn't come with us because they were now independent, and they were no longer under our uh as dependents of ours, therefore they would have had to apply for themselves to to immigrate across here. And so it was a huge thing for me. I felt like I was deserting my children, especially having lost their dad. And I had this huge hole in my heart when I f first moved across. But your place is with your husband or your wife, as you know. So I came to Australia, and I must admit, first couple of years I was I I found it exceptionally hard not having my children around. And in those days, you couldn't phone on WhatsApp or Skype. I had to go to a call box. I used to have to go to a news agent and buy a telephone card and then phone them on that. My first job was working in a hospital uh on the Sunshine Coast, which I loved. And I started at the bottom of the rung as the telephonist in those days, and I answered a lot of the calls at the hospital, but gradually worked my way up and and admitted and discharged patients, and then eventually was doing um theater bookings, which I loved because I worked in theater, and so you got to know a lot of the surgeons when they were operating, and obviously the staff. And I loved the environment of working in the hospital because I wanted to go nursing when I was much younger, but had married, and in those days you couldn't go nursing. Whilst I was still doing my uh working at the hospital, I then decided I was going to go to TAFE, and I wanted to try and get into the community side because I loved the thought of helping others. And so I went to TAFE for a year and I did what was called a diversional therapist course. That has changed. I think they now call them lifestyle people, and um I don't think they have to do a year like I did, but I loved it, and I was very fortunate after my year at TAFE. I got a job, I first did a placement with a with an organization that used to be on the coast called Sunshine 60 and Better, which was seniors working, you know, living independently. And I loved that, and I had the most amazing time because the see the the older community have amazing stories. I mean, we used to sit on a Friday when we'd have lunch together and um talk about when they were young and how they would have to milk the cows before they'd even gone to school in the morning. And I think, gosh, we complain about you know things being difficult. But imagine at that age having to go and milk cows and then still walk to school and you didn't have somebody dropping you, mum and dad didn't drop you at school. And I learned a lot from them and I was so grateful. I had a I had bought a book that was on slang in Australia, and they used to love it if I sat and read uh some of the slang words sometimes to try and understand our culture in the country, and uh they would laugh because some some of the things were could be taken two ways, and then they'd laugh their heads off and I'd be red in the face, embarrassed. And so I learned a lot and had an amazing time with them because obviously to me, being able to to look at what people's needs are, and also when you come to a country as a new immigrant, I think it's really important for you to become part of the country that has allowed you to come in. It's you know, it's a huge thing, and and you really whilst you'll never forget your grounding of where you've come from, I think you can become part. The country, you can become Australian. And I feel that is something I've really tried to do from the time I've been here. And I feel I've been very blessed because I've had and I've met the most amazing people in every area that I've been in, whether it was working in the hospital, helping a few of the patients outside of working hours, if I knew they needed a needed a little bit of extra TLC or they didn't have families, I would try and help where I could. And then from that, my second husband started with kidney disease, which they said had been through a virus he had the year before. And I found eventually I had to become his carer, but I still worked full-time. And then I spoke to quite a few of the nephrologists at the hospital and the nursing staff and the renal unit. And I would say our closest point of contact would be Brisbane. We need something on the coast. Spoke to a few of the other patients, and eventually we managed to get a committee together and we started a kidney support program for the dialysis patients and families on the coast. I was very fortunate in that I spoke to a company. I would go door to door and I was talking about how we needed a bus to be able to provide transport to these people who were on dialysis because they would have to wait for the Ambos. The Ambos do an incredible job. But their priority is to go the minute somebody's ill or having a heart attack. And so sometimes their wait for a transport to get home could have been two, three hours after they had finished their dialysis. And when you're sitting on a machine for three or four hours and then have to wait that length of time, it's it's a long, long time. So I was very blessed. I received a donation of an eight-seater vehicle, which then we started at the hospital, picking up patients, taking them to dialysis, taking them home afterwards. Initially I was driving the bus myself, and then I was thinking, oh, we've got to be able to provide for this bus. How are we going to do that? We've got to, you know, support services and all that kind of stuff. So open two op shops, not knowing a thing about an op shop, but open two op shops, managed to find volunteers, some of which were one or two of them were uh care, you know, carers themselves. And that that was an incredible time because you could see how much difference it made to their lives just by being able to sell the clothes, keep the bus running. I even started some classes for some of the carers making uh jewelry, you know, little necklaces and earrings that we would then also sell in the in the off shop. And unfortunately, uh my time working, sometimes I would have to give up my job so that I could again might have had to go to Royal Brisbane, for example. He had um had to have a triple bypass once, and then it was something else. And the journey on that can be a very lonely journey. And I think uh people seem to forget, and and this doesn't just apply to kidney disease, it applies to anything, whether it's mental health, whether it's someone who's committed suicide, whether it's homelessness, there's usually more than one person on the journey, and it can be a very lonely existence. And I think this is where as a society we need to be a lot more cognizant of the needs that we have out there in our community. Sometimes I think some people, if they feel, well, it doesn't really concern me, why should I take an interest? But I believe everyone can make a difference in somebody's life, no matter how small, it doesn't have to be big. You just walk through down the street every day and smile at somebody, that makes a difference. Sit at a bench and talk to people.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Now, can I just now take you to health aging partnerships? Just to to finish off our chat today, what drove that exercise and how does it empower people?

SPEAKER_00 48:52

What we do as uh uh in my capacity as president of Healthy Aging Partnerships, we're a not-for-profit organization. We did we dedicate it to empowering, connecting, and informing older adults so they can live vibrant, fulfilling lives. It's supported by a community, a committed volunteer committee. A lot of them actually hold jobs within the not-for-profit sector. We try and strengthen their social connection, community participation. So we do things like forums and we do that in collaboration with like-minded partners. So they can be across service providers giving aged care for those at home. It might be people like Country to Coast or Primary Health Network, it can be even um things like the Sunshine Coast Health and Health Institute, people like Parkinson's Association, Vision Australia, all those sort of things. So when we do the forums, for example, we just had one on um staying in the driver's seat. You would know as you're aging, when you reach the age of 75, you need to ensure you're still cognitively able to drive, you're still capable of driving. So you go to your GP, you go through a bit of a cognitive test that check your eyesight, all that kind of thing. But we need to allay the fears of of the older community because taking away your driver's license, we know, has a huge impact on people. And yes, there are times when it is absolutely necessary. It might be somebody with dementia, but we are trying to ensure that we are giving information to people that they can make informed decisions, whether that is around navigating my age care, whether that is around brain health, whether that is around Parkinson's, whatever the situation, that's really what we're all about. And because social isolation is huge in in our older community, we've either moved from different states or different countries. The coast is, you know, the coast is growing. I think that that I read somewhere that um by the year 2046 they were predict predicting about another 200,000 residents on the coast. So we need to be planning for the needs of the aging population, and we need to be strengthening preventative measures to ensure that people are remaining healthy and independent for as long as they possibly can.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

Before we go any further, are we just gonna start wrapping up the the the podcast today? Can you talked a little bit before about your mum telling you to empowering you about understanding people and caring for people. Can you hear your mum's voice and your mum's message in the work you're doing at the moment?

SPEAKER_00 51:57

Absolutely. As I said, I think because mum always said if you can help somebody else do it, you get just as much joy out of helping somebody as as you do when you're volunteering, even if you haven't worked for a long time and you then go volunteering, you're able to utilize skills that you had. So you may have been someone who's excellent with projects or events. You know, a lot of the not-for-profits need those skills, but then you're also getting back by being able to meet others to get those to show on your resume that you now have done uh a volunteer position. That looks good. Whether you're a youngster from school who's volunteering, you just have to take our lifesavers, for example. And think of the jobs that they're doing. So, yes, whatever you know, my mum's voice definitely resonates a lot with me. And I'm, as I said, extremely grateful that I've had the most incredible mentors in my mum and my grandparents. And I I hope I have made them proud in what I do, and I do it because I love it. I don't do it to try and have any recognition. There are thousands of people out there doing an incredible job. In fact, if I can just add, in Queensland, and I'm only giving you figures in Queensland, at the moment, if you looked at the report from Volunteering Queensland, the state uh volunteering body, their report last year, they said 64% of Queensland Queensland had volunteered in 2023. That's 2.8 million people. That's an average per person of 21.6 hours per month, which equates to 719.8 million hours in volunteering in 2023. Just in Queensland. Puts the value of volunteering in Queensland at$117.8 billion. What's being saved in volunteering in this country?

SPEAKER_01 54:12

And on that note, I'd love to thank you for being a guest on the Confab tonight. But before we finish, could you introduce your last track? Who is the performer and why did you select it?

SPEAKER_00 54:24

Celine Dion and Andre Bacelli, The Prayer. I absolutely love that song. Um, and I feel that would be very much what I would like to end on. And thank you so much for your time, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 54:40

It's been a pleasure, and thank you for being a guest.

SPEAKER_06 55:18

When we lose all the sweetness,