OPINION: Finding time to help

Columnist Andrew Gale talks about community service

FRIENDLY FACES: Andrew Gale is happy to help out in the community, including with the UC Friends group. Picture: Contributed

I FOUND out the other day that trying to eat more than one of those awful sour lollies was beyond me, that local larrikin and amateur auctioneer Tom Potts head is likely to "fly off” if he gets too excited, and there are a plethora of local players in the disability sector due to the recent roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Where did I find this out I hear you ask? At the Disability Action Week Expo held at WIRAC last Thursday.

It's great to see money flowing into helping people with disabilities. Some of those people having issues new from birth and others due to incidents later in life.

You would be surprised at the reasons people have ended up in need of help. I always remember an incident I dealt with once involving a young fellow. One minute he's a 20-year-old apprentice sparky paying off a new ute with the world laid out in front of him, next minute he's in a wheelchair with a brain injury and requiring full-time care by his parents.

This was life-changing for his entire family. One of his parents had to give up work to care for him and they had to spend thousands on the family home installing a lift, ramps and widening doors and so on. What made this even worse was the lack of insurance cover for the incident in those days.

If it had happened on the road or at work, he would have been able to claim compensation through third party insurance or workers' comp. But because it happened off road, there was no such safety net.

Sure, he could have sued the other person in the incident, but seeing it was just another young bloke like him, with no insurance, what would be the point?

It would have been great if the NDIS was around when this happened, but it should make that guy's life better from now on.

I've been involved with the less-abled in our community for 10 years or more, firstly as a committee member and now chairman of the UC Friends Group.

We run activities and trips for our members, 16 years and older.

The group is safe, fun, friendly and inclusive. We love having a laugh and a feed together and having lots of great experiences.

UC Friends in one form or another has been run under the stewardship of the Warwick and Killarney Uniting Church for more than 30 years. We are always looking for more helpers and more participants.

Some of the volunteers have family members who participate in the program whilst others are people who want to help out.

I personally find the time I spend with the group to be immensely satisfying. You might think that looking after 30-40 persons with disabilities is a challenge, but after looking after my family of seven kids, it's a breeze.