A lifetime of devotion to those less fortunate

IT was the proudest night of Bill Ryan’s life at the glamour packed national Pride of Australia awards in Sydney last November.

Bill Ryan - Pride of Australia

IT was the proudest night of Bill Ryan’s life at the glamour packed national Pride of Australia awards in Sydney last November.

But few in the star filled room or the millions watching at home could know the Davoren Park resident was struggling with a terrible secret.

The 83-year-old took home the Medal for Community Spirit and People’s Choice Medal that night then headed straight to the airport to fly home to Adelaide and confront his battle with bowel cancer.

“I felt dreadful but I had to go to Sydney because I couldn’t let anyone down,” Mr Ryan said this week.

“It was such an honour I decided I would go to the awards and then get on with dealing with cancer.”

He underwent surgery two days later and had a part of his bowel removed.

He was so sick he was administered the last rites by a priest but says he is ‘positively dangerous’ again now.

“I’m feeling as good as I did when I was in my twenties and I’m looking to live to 100,” the man born in Liverpool during the Great Depression said.

“My weight had gone down to 53kg and my friends didn’t recognise me.

“But I’m up to 73 kilos now and the doctor’s saying I need to lose a couple of kilos.”

Mr Ryan won his awards for a lifetime of devotion to those less fortunate including paying the medical expenses of the elderly and the private nursing home costs of the infirm.

He has also sat beside the bedside of the dying — and then paid for their funeral — as well as caring for hundreds of animals.

He demonstrated his remarkable generosity by giving away all his Pride of Australia prizemoney — $20,000 — with the money split evenly between SA Dog Rescue and the Philippines aid effort to recover from the devastating Typhoon Haiyan that hit the country last November.

It is not the first time Mr Ryan has spent a windfall on others.

Four years ago he invested all of a $100,000 lottery win — and a bit more — buying the house next door that he intended to use as a hostel for six homeless men.

In a shocking act of vandalism the home was ransacked earlier this year by a group of youths when no-one was living in the furnished property.

Mr Ryan has moved in a young homeless couple who have a child.

“They had nowhere to go when the man lost his job so this is helping then back on their feet,” he added.

“We’ve talked to the bank and got a saving plan in place so they can get their own place.

“I love helping people to help themselves it just makes me feel so good — I highly recommend it.”