Allison’s baby died after swallowing a battery. Now she’s been credited with saving other children’s lives

She has worked tirelessly to help prevent other children dying from swallowing button batteries. But for Allison Burns, her daughter, Bella, has always been front of mind, and in her heart.

Allison Burns, OAM, with a photo of her daughter, Bella Rees, who died after swallowing a button battery.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Since Burns’ 14-month-old girl died slowly and painfully after ingesting a button battery in February 2015, Burns has not just hoped for change, she has acted.

Lobbying by the charity she set up, Bella’s Footprints, has led to tighter regulations on the batteries’ sale and storage to be adopted in Australia and the United States, with the UK set to follow.

Burns, who lives in Taylors Hill in Melbourne’s north-west, is one of the community heroes in the 2024 King’s Birthday honours list.

They are people who work selflessly for the common good, giving their own time and efforts freely to help others.

Allison Burns founded the charity, Bella’s Footprints, to lobby for change.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Burns said receiving the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) was bittersweet because it wouldn’t have happened had her daughter not died.

But parents have told Burns she had saved lives by telling Bella’s story and by raising awareness of symptoms of swallowing batteries, such as noisy breathing, chest pain and problems swallowing, leading them to seek earlier medical intervention.

Asked what keeps her motivated, Burns said, “my daughter”, whom she described as cheeky, bright and bubbly.

“When she passed, I saw a lot of things that were wrong with button batteries, and I made a promise to her, to keep going and force changes, whether it was with product safety, or the medical system or the battery manufacturers.

“I wanted to help protect every child in this country and my love for my daughter helped me do that, helped me achieve that,” Burns said.

When Bella died, only toys had a safety standard for batteries. But Burns discovered that batteries in common household items such as musical birthday cards and car key fobs had no such rules.

Under the new rules, button batteries must now be sold in child-proofed packaging, and any product containing button batteries must have warning labels and medical advice, be tested so that batteries don’t fall out, and the batteries should be inside a screwed compartment.

However, Burns is still lobbying for laws compelling stores to display batteries out of reach of children, but also to ban button batteries in certain products and for changes to medical issues.

Sixty years of saving lives: David McKenzie at Port Campbell pier.Credit: Nicole Cleary

Like Burns, David McKenzie, a volunteer surf lifesaver since 1963 at Port Campbell on Victoria’s treacherous west coast, is struck by how many incidents are preventable.

McKenzie, a recipient of the Emergency Services Medal for 60 years of service, has seen fishers and swimmers get swept away by ignoring signs and verbal warnings that a cliff or beach is dangerous.

McKenzie, a founding member of Port Campbell Surf Life Saving Club, is also a 60-year volunteer for Port Campbell’s State Emergency Service crew and fire brigade. The retired farmer believes in pitching in when living in such a small town, with a population of about 300.

McKenzie, 78, whose four children and nine grandchildren are also lifesavers, expects to patrol again this summer, but must undergo a fitness test.

“I enjoy it. It keeps you fit and keeps your mind active,” he said, thanking his wife, Marie, for her “untiring” support.

Retired real estate agent Bob Gartland has received an OAM for his unpaid community work, including documenting the sporting history of his lifelong home, Geelong.

Bob Gartland, OAM, at GMHBA Stadium in Geelong with a Cats flag from the 1960s.Credit: Joe Armao

He has lobbied and obtained funding for the new Geelong Sports Museum, which will open in GMHBA stadium, home of the Geelong Football Club, in coming weeks.

Gartland, a former Cats board member and vice president, also owns a club memorabilia collection of 14,000 objects and more than 100,000 photos. The collection includes the 1884 premiership medal belonging to Tom Cahill, who became a Catholic priest.

To Gartland, such pieces are more than inanimate objects: “They have powerful stories attached to them.”

Gartland is also proud of being a fundraiser, advocate and patron of the Geelong hospice, Anam Cara House. Its name derives from the Irish words for “soul friend”.

Adele Hulse receives an OAM for her work as a Buddhist centre volunteer, a journalist and for helping Holocaust survivors write their stories.

From 1984 to 2009, Hulse wrote a column in The Age, using the pseudonym Sharon Gray, that explored issues ranging from child-raising to funeral industry practices.

Former columnist for The Age Adele Hulse, OAM, in the garden she revived at Tara Institute Buddhist centre in Brighton East.Credit: Penny Stephens

Hulse has volunteered at Tara Institute Buddhist centre, which is now housed in an old mansion in Brighton East, since 1977, and in the past 10 years has rejuvenated its garden.

For 20 years, Hulse was on the committee of management of the Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement, now known as Grief Australia.

And since 2000, Hulse has helped more than 150 Holocaust survivors and their relatives write their memoirs as manager and co-ordinator of a Write Your Story program for the Lamm Jewish Library of Australia, formerly the Makor Library.

For many years, Hulse also raised money, organising Bleeding Hearts charity balls, to fund water and sanitation projects in Tibetan settlements in India and Nepal.

Hulse says she has not craved recognition. However, her Buddhist teacher, Lama Yeshe, whom she met in Nepal in 1974 and whose biography she later wrote, advised her: “If you’re useful, you’ll be happy.”

Hulse said her OAM might benefit future pro bono projects. “I’d like to find a way I can use it for good,” she said. “You meet people, and they pay more attention to you. I think you have a voice.”

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