Celebrity chef Matt Golinski is back on his board and getting on with life a year after a fire that killed his family
Celebrity chef Matt Golinski is back on his surfboard a year after suffering horrific burns in a house fire that killed his wife and three daughters last Christmas.
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Celebrity chef Matt Golinski is back on his surfboard a year after suffering horrific burns in a house fire that killed his wife and three daughters.
The chef suffered severe burns to 40 per cent of his body and his physical recovery is continuing, a year on from the 2011 Boxing Day that claimed the lives of his beautiful girls.
Photos have appeared online of Golinski surfing, and a family spokeswoman has told The Sunshine Coast Daily he is looking ahead "for a positive future".
"He is not looking back," she said.
"It won't help him or anyone else. He is focused on playing it forward."
An official fundraising trust - the Matt Golinski Recovery Fund Trust - was closed on Boxing Day with the chef directing proceeds to burns-related charities.
He's already passed on about $100,000.
"Matt has been very grateful for the financial and emotional support," the spokeswoman said.
"It's never been about getting money for him, which is why he has been giving it away. He has used his tragedy to help others."
In an interview with The Courier-Mail in August, Golinski said he was determined to live a life that would inspire pride in his lost wife Rachael, and daughters Starlia, 10, and 12-year-old twins, Willow and Sage.
"I want to honour the memory of Rachael and our girls by finding a silver lining somewhere in these dark clouds," he said earlier this year.
"Although the loss of my family is unfathomable, at this stage of my recovery, I am simply grateful to be alive and to have experienced the love of my beautiful wife and three daughters."