04 Oct 2025

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:13):
Hi, I'm Toby Kane, deputy chef de mission for Australia
at the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Cortina. And you're listening
to leisure link with Peter Greco on Vision Australia radio.

S2 (00:34):
It's just gone 5:00 and with Julie Andrews turning 90
during the week, my very favourite thing is you allowing
me to welcome you to this link here on Vision
Australia Radio 1190 7 a.m. in Adelaide. Online at via
Radio Adelaide in Darwin, where a community radio app look
for Vision Australia. Radio Adelaide if you're listening to the

(00:57):
Reading Radio Network, welcome to you. If listening through 103.9
FM in Western Australia, hello to you and also wonderful
support from Disability Media Australia if you're listening via their website.
Hello to you. Thank you for your support. You can
find out much more about them at power p o

(01:17):
w e Peter Greco saying so tremendous to be here.
Thank you for making time to tune in this program
coming to you from Ghana land. Come to you very shortly.
We'll speak to Doctor Toby Kane, winter Paralympian who is
now the deputy chef de mission for the games. Next
year we'll catch up with Minister for Human Services Nat Cook.

(01:37):
Always plenty for Nat to talk about. We'll catch up
with her very soon. David Mitchell will join us. Melatonin
has been in the news. We'll get David's perspective from it.
Glen Delia from Brewed by Belinda. The brew. That is true.
Belinda's been overseas doing some research into tea, particularly in Korea.
Look forward to hearing more about that. May 9th will

(01:59):
join us from Pacific Vision. He's coming to Tech Fest
this coming Thursday. He's got some interesting products to talk about,
including some smart glasses. We'll also catch up with the professor,
Christopher Rowe, with some really interesting news regarding Alzheimer's, dementia
and some breakthroughs that hopefully might be of interest to
you or someone you love. And Wayne Spears will also

(02:21):
be here from Yarra Trams in Melbourne. A try before
you ride day for public transport coming up in Melbourne
October 16th. Your invitation to attend via the radio very soon. Well,
wonderful news for our Winter Paralympic team with the announcement
of Toby Kane as the Deputy Chef de mission. And

(02:45):
he's on the line. Toby, welcome and congratulations on your appointment.

S1 (02:48):
Oh, thank you. And thank you very much for having me.

S2 (02:51):
How does something like this come about? Do you apply?
Do you get headhunted? How does it all happen?

S1 (02:56):
Um. Look, I was asked, uh, by Paralympics Australia, and
I've been asked a couple of times to be involved in, um,
the Paralympics of years past, and and it's just been
sort of circumstantial and things like Covid work. Um, exams.
So lots of things that sort of haven't worked out.

(03:16):
And then when the opportunity came up to be involved
in another Winter games, um, and for that to be Cortina,
I just jumped at the chance.

S2 (03:25):
Now, you've been to three games yourself. So you're no
stranger to this landscape?

S1 (03:30):
Yeah, yeah. Look, I that's very true. Um, it feels
in some ways like another lifetime ago that I was
at the games. Um, but, yes, my first Paralympics were
in Italy. Um, and so it will be. I'm really
excited to be involved, um, to sort of help the
team in any way that I can and to also
sort of, you know, be back in that environment and
be back in Italy.

S2 (03:51):
But a symmetry about it, back to Italy next year.

S1 (03:53):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I've never, um, I've never skied in Cortina,
but I'm, I've been there and I'm, I'm, I'm very
excited to go back.

S2 (04:01):
Now, we spoke to Ben Troy, the chef de mission,
a few weeks ago or maybe a few months ago
now when he was appointed, and it's very exciting times
for our team, but sounds like we're going to have
a very good, strong team going away. I mean, we've
always had a strong team, but we've got quite a
big team. I think going away, all things being equal
this time around.

S1 (04:18):
Yeah, yeah. So I got to, um, travel to Jindabyne recently, um,
and meet the team and also meet a lot of
people that were trying alpine skiing and snowboarding for the
first time with it, with the disability. So that was
a lot of fun. Um, I think you're right. I
think it's a big team. It's very different to when
I was involved. Our team was predominantly, predominantly alpine skiers,

(04:42):
and now we've got a sort of great spread across
alpine skiing, across snowboarding, and also some Nordic skiers. And
so that was really pleasing to see. Um, it was
pleasing to see, um, some developing athletes coming through, I
think some of which may be at the game. So,
so I think we've gone through maybe a little bit
of a lull and we're sort of coming out the

(05:03):
other side and seeing a big, strong Australian team at
a Winter Paralympics. Again.

S2 (05:08):
We'll talk about your career in a second, but it's
a very exciting time, isn't it? In terms of media
coverage and the abilities of athletes being profiled on kind
of free to air TV? It's an exciting time for
the sort of movement, isn't it?

S1 (05:22):
Oh, like 100%, Peter. Yeah. I couldn't have said it better.
It's I was reflecting on that a few weeks ago,
and the first Paralympic Winter games I watched was in 2002.
I was, I think 15 at the time, and that
was a half an hour highlight package on SBS. It
was only highlights. There was there was nothing live. There

(05:44):
was sort of, um, very, very limited coverage. And to be, um,
you know, sort of 20 plus years later and to
see the coverage that, um, Paralympians are getting in Australia
both winter and summer, I think it's such a, um, uh,
an incredible thing. And I am I'm sort of humbled
and glad that I have played a very small part

(06:07):
in that movement over the years.

S2 (06:09):
Well, that's so true, isn't it? Because we don't get
to where we are now. If it hadn't been for
those that have gone before us, I'm talking sort of
in general terms, and you'd be very proud of that. Well,
you're being a bit modest saying a little, but he
can be very proud of that because it's what people
like you did in the past that have got us
to where we are today.

S1 (06:28):
I thank you. Yeah. Well, look, look, I had to
look up to the people that came before me, so. Yeah,
that's what, 100% true. Right. So there's been some incredibly, uh,
sort of inspiring Paralympians in Australia, and I think they
will continue to be. But, you know, people like Kurt
Fearnley and, and how much sort of publicity and um,
and voice he has in Australia, uh, with his podcast with,

(06:50):
you know, different TV appearances, that sort of thing. So, um,
there's definitely a, a very, you know, strong movement and
a strong backing from Paralympics Australia.

S2 (06:59):
And also with someone like Kurt. I mean, they get
into other areas of, uh, sort of disability and administration
and advocacy as well. So, yeah, definitely.

S1 (07:07):
Dylan. Dylan Alcott being another one. Yeah, definitely.

S2 (07:10):
Well, even, uh, here in South Australia, we've had, uh,
Matt Cowdrey, who's a member of parliament and in Queensland
and Alan France, now in Queensland. So we're going to
take the world over or you're going to take the
world over.

S1 (07:22):
Yes. Yeah.

S2 (07:23):
Yeah. Uh, what about do you reflect much time? Because
I guess you just touched on the fact that you're
so busy doing other stuff, but do you reflect much
on your career?

S3 (07:32):
Oh, look, I, um, I had to leave.

S1 (07:36):
Um, skiing quite quickly. It's sort of the way that
I put it. Um, I finished my last Paralympics was
my final year of medical school. Um, and then I
sort of quickly had to, um, be an intern in
a hospital. Um, I had to, um, sort of get
my registration. I've got three children. Um.

S2 (07:56):
And congratulations.

S1 (07:57):
Thank you, thank you. So I put a I feel
like I left very quickly and I had to sort
of put it behind me. Probably the answer to that
is no. I probably don't reflect it very much on it. Um,
but I'm very proud of it. And, um, I think
there's when people bring it up with me, I'm so
sort of happy and proud to talk about it, but
I'm not probably one that, uh, runs around shouting from

(08:21):
the rooftops.

S2 (08:22):
Yeah, yeah, well, you won bronze medals at the Winter
Paralympic Games, so you could certainly be very proud of that.
I remember speaking to you at the time, Toby, and,
you know, you're one of these incredibly obviously. Well, uh,
time managed people because, as I said, you were doing
a medical degree at the same time as you were competing.

S1 (08:38):
Yeah, yeah, I look, I had some help with that, obviously. Um,
and I probably had some a couple of years that
I probably didn't ski as well as I would like.
So there was, there was always a, a give and take, um,
with skiing and with university and funnily enough, you know,
you wouldn't think it. But being from the southern hemisphere

(08:59):
means that your summer university holidays are actually the big ones,
which is when you want to go overseas and compete.

S2 (09:06):
Yeah.

S1 (09:06):
And so it's sort of strangely works out that university
and being from Australia was it was a good thing.
And I've sort of managed to squeeze in a few,
you know, things, um, and felt I feel very grateful. Peter,
I guess that I had something, but when I came
to the end of my skiing career, I had something
to sort of throw myself into. And I'm I'm very,

(09:27):
sort of, uh, I enjoy my job, and I really
enjoy my work. Yeah.

S2 (09:32):
What about the role of deputy chef de mission? I
guess it does come with a handbook. Or does it?
I mean, it probably a lot of learning on the job.

S1 (09:39):
Yeah. Oh, definitely. I don't think there's any sort of handbook. Um,
look like I've been involved with, um, multiple teams where
there are people that are willing to do whatever it
takes to help the team, and that's the role that
I see myself in and I quite quickly said to
the athletes in the team that I'm not there for

(10:01):
any sort of self-interest. You know, I don't I don't
have a social media following. I'm not trying to sort
of promote myself. Um, I am there to do whatever
it takes to improve their experience, whether that be mentoring,
whether that be videoing on the course or making Milo's

(10:22):
in the evening or just being someone to talk to.
So like 100% sort of honest with it. I don't
mind what I do as long as I am there
to help. And that's, you know, just been a reflection
on people that have come in and out of the
team before and with the acknowledgement that my role is
quite minor, you know, they're a team that that travel together.

(10:45):
And what I used to do travel together for months
and months and months. And so to have someone sort
of come in at the end of it and say, oh, hi,
I'm here to be a part of the team, you know, like,
I will do my very best just to fit in
and help.

S2 (10:58):
It's an enormous commitment, isn't it? I know we've spoken
about it often on the programme that our winter athletes,
I mean, as you say, they spend so much time
away from home, from family and friends, I guess from
their routine and, you know, their, their sort of uprooting
all that and all in the course of trying to
represent their country.

S1 (11:14):
Yeah, very much so. It's sort of an underrated thing. Um, yeah.
In Australian sport, um, that it's a huge commitment and
the fact that you, you know, can't go training and
then go home to your family or your partner or
your friends is a is a very different, uh, experience.
And look, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't trade it

(11:35):
for the world. You know, I, I had, um, an
incredible sort of 15 years or so of travelling with
the development team and the and then the Australian team.
And so I got to travel the world. I got
to have friends that I, you know, lifelong friends. It's
a challenging experience at times.

S2 (11:52):
He talked about making wine or video video videoing a
few events. I guess you know when the when the
athlete is doing well, kind of everyone wants to be
their friend, so they kind of don't need people to
be their friends. It's I guess when things don't go
the way that they wanted or they expected that, you know,
people like you can really play a very important role.

S1 (12:12):
I hope so. Look, I definitely had one of those games.
My my Vancouver experience was probably everything that could go
wrong from sort of a personal point of view and just, um, a,
you know, tactics and scheme point of view did go wrong. Um,
and so I know what it feels like, and I
know sort of how hard I took that at the time.

(12:34):
And I also, I guess, know from that experience that
it's the people that understand what you're not through, that, um,
are probably the most valuable people to have around. So
anyone can sort of, you know, give you a pat
on the back and say, oh, look, don't worry about it.
But you've been there and you've worked for four years
to get to that point, and everything sort of goes

(12:55):
poorly or not as as you'd expected. And that that
can be a pretty challenging time.

S2 (13:01):
Do you think your medical degree will come in handy?

S4 (13:03):
Mhm. Well look I hope not.

S1 (13:06):
I mean anaesthetist now and so I don't want to
have to use my skills um uh to help people.
I of course I will if I need to, but um,
I remember our long time team doctor, Geoff Thompson, saying
that you can come across all sorts of sort of
medical emergencies in a Olympic or Paralympic village. So it's

(13:26):
not just sporting injuries. There can be a whole range
of things that can happen. So, um, yeah, I guess
I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'm on a medic.

S4 (13:35):
There.

S2 (13:35):
Though. Fair enough. Hey, just for a second, let's talk
a bit of shop travel. I mean, a number of
our listeners would maybe love to go to the games
or be elite athletes. Probably a higher number would have
had surgery over the years or would have had an
anaesthetic over the ideas. What's that like when you're literally
got people's lives in your own hands?

S1 (13:53):
Oh, well, look, I guess, um, from my point of view,
what I try to convey to people and I predominantly
anesthetize children. And so I'm talking to children and their families,
and I just try and convey that to me. It's
a really normal day at work. Yeah. And. Okay. Um,
on that, that's often the thing that makes people relax

(14:14):
a bit and saying that, look, I understand that you
this is a big day for you and your family,
but for me it's the opposite. It's a very normal
day at work. It can be stressful at times. Um,
that most of that stress happens right in the moment
and you have to fix something to make that stress
go away. But look, I like it. They're very, um,

(14:36):
core part of the job is looking after people, um,
and making sure that they're safe. And so I, I
enjoy it, I enjoy sort of interacting with children and
their families and, and sort of hopefully giving them a
good experience.

S2 (14:49):
What's it like in terms of technology? Is that advanced much?
I know you probably haven't been at this all that long,
but is that not much that can you.

S1 (14:56):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I guess when you talk to people
who have been doing it for a long time, then
yes is the answer. You know, like that things have
definitely changed over 20 years. Look, I think that having
an anaesthetic is a very safe thing to do. And,
and the statistics would, would back that up. Um, uh,
has technology. Yeah. I think the technology sort of continues

(15:19):
to improve. Um, and that can be simple things like
an ultrasound machine, surgical equipment, anaesthetic equipment that sort of delivers,
you know, a better ventilator or delivers drugs. So I
think it's a space that will continue to evolve and
get better.

S2 (15:35):
It's interesting you say that it's safe because I guess,
you know, if we hear horror stories, we think, oh,
it must be a risky thing. But, you know, the
people that get through unscathed, we probably never hear about them.

S1 (15:45):
But yeah, that's very true. That's very true. You hear
lots of sort of anecdotal stories. Yeah. The the amount
of people that are having operations a day in New
Zealand and Australia is a very, very high number. Right.
So it's um, it is a very safe thing to do.
And the people that I guess look after you and

(16:05):
not I'm not just talking about me, but the surgeons, um,
the theatre staff, the people in recovery, they're all sort
of experts at their job, right? And all have a
lot of training.

S2 (16:17):
Oh, well, that's very comforting to know. And I'm sure
if anyone's going in for surgery in the next little while,
hearing that from you would maybe just make them feel
a little bit more comfortable. So thank you for that.
That's good. Okay. Congratulations again on the appointment. It's it's
wonderful news. I'm sure the athletes will be died. And
we look forward to seeing how the team goes. It's
going to be a good coverage on channel nine. So

(16:37):
we'll have no excuse for not keeping right up to
date with how they're going. And again, congratulations. And we
wish you and the team well.

S1 (16:45):
Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

S2 (16:47):
It's the doctor. I became their anaesthetist. And also the, uh. Well,
just appointed recently the deputy chef de mission for the
Australian team. Off to Cortina in Italy in 2026. Always
great catching up with the Minister for Human Services here
in South Australia. Nat cook always makes herself available. Nat,

(17:07):
good to catch up again.

S5 (17:08):
Yeah. Definitely. Peter, how are you going?

S2 (17:10):
I'm going especially. Well. A couple of our organisations not
going so well though. Uh, Bedford's and, uh, last week,
the Mars Society. Is this a bit of a concern?

S5 (17:19):
Yeah, of course it is. These are really well known
organisations that between them have thousands of people who attend
or receive some support or have done so, and also many,
many more people in the community who understand the benefit
of both of those organisations. So everybody is going through
a few stages of shock and frustration at what's going on,

(17:43):
but it comes from two very different areas. I think
there are problems, but we've made it very clear, particularly
given the number of people with intellectual disability who received
supports through Bedford, that we want from a state government,
and the Premier has taken the lead on this with
our support. We want to make sure there's a clear

(18:04):
path for people that's well articulated, all explained in a
way that people understand, so that there's no surprises to
people who are deeply affected. So we know Bedford, there's
people living with supports. That's about 40 people. There are many,
many hundreds of people who receive other supports through the

(18:26):
work supported work environments and then their external enterprises. And
there's also many people who attend Bedford for day programmes.
And a lot of those people live with elderly parents
in the community. There is quite a complex fabric that
really wraps around Bedford and we, the state government, are

(18:47):
working now with the federal government to ensure because it's
all of these things are predominantly federally funded. Okay. So
to ensure that, um, there's a safety net being made
available for people and a pathway with them.

S2 (19:02):
Of course, a lot of people receive services from them.
There's talk about maybe hiring those off or divest themselves
of those services, but there's people that are working in
that area are very, very skilled. We don't want to
lose them to the industry and in particular to people
who might be living with Ms..

S5 (19:16):
Yeah, and I visited their wellbeing centre. I've certainly met
with workers and recipients of the services. They have a
very small component of NDIS as opposed to Bedford, and
the major problem for Ms. is that they relied heavily
on two income sources, one being their employment services and

(19:40):
the other being their raffle program or their lottery program.
Now they failed to secure the renewed contracts. If we
remember back, Peter, and many people who listened to your
show would remember. There's been a lot of dissatisfaction around disability,
employment services and job providers, and there's been a lot

(20:01):
of people unhappy with the service that they're getting from providers.
And I'm not saying that was the Mis society by
any means, but what that did was when the labor
government came in nearly four years ago now, they made
some significant commitments to listen and reform much of the
disability community service provision. And part of that was disability

(20:24):
employment services. So that's been reviewed, that's been reformed. The
tenders went out and mis lost two out of their
three contracts. And economy of scale would say you need
all the backroom services to deliver one, 2 or 3.
And if you're only doing one, then those costs aren't
spread across enough contracts to be able to make it worthwhile.

(20:47):
So GMs have had to make some tough decisions, and
their yield from fundraising has been difficult. They're in a
very challenging fundraising market. People know where they want to
put their money and their money is limited at times,
so I feel for them. But we know that the
administrators are working really hard to keep them trading and
to move forward.

S2 (21:08):
Well, I know Bedford has run a lottery as well.
And indeed, if you watch a bit of TV at night,
I mean, you forget the gambling ads. But we also
do have a number of charities in quotes or organisations
that are running lotteries. And I guess the pie is
only so big.

S5 (21:20):
Exactly.

S2 (21:21):
I guess that's the multiple solutions part of it. But
the services they give for people who are living with Ms.,
that's pretty critical because there's a lot of expertise in
that delivery service.

S5 (21:30):
Yeah. Not being deeply in the weeds on their operational model,
I think we can assume that the services that they've
been providing have been funded out of a combination of
any money left over through their employment contracts and any
monies raised. So not being able to receive that is
meaning that they can't provide those other services. And that's

(21:51):
where the administrators are having to put their efforts into
to ensure that either they or someone else can continue
those services. And I did read somewhere that one of
the Ms. societies from Interstate had been in conversation with them.
So let's sit and wait and hear from them as
soon as they get a plan ready, I think.

S2 (22:09):
Because it was missing too. So our thoughts are also
with those people who live in the territory, who are
geographically isolated with access to services, are isolated as well.

S5 (22:19):
Absolutely. And in a few days, I'm off again to
the APY lands, which has some shared service delivery across
Northern Territory, WA and South Australia. It's a complex model
of service delivery when you hit remote regions, and I'm
often at organizations talking and at community forums talking about
service delivery. And I hear many people say, oh, we

(22:41):
have trouble getting X, Y, and Z. And I just
often try to turn people's minds to it and say, look,
I'm not trying to water down your issue. And yes,
we will try and support you as best we can,
but can you imagine what it's like if you live
900km northwest of Adelaide? If you imagine the challenges of
receiving services through an NDIS or an aged care support

(23:02):
model when you're living that far out of the main
metropolitan area. I know even people living on Yorke Peninsula
and in the Murray Mallee have challenges. Well, goodness me,
the tyranny of distance.

S2 (23:14):
Yeah, and I guess if people choose to live in
that area, it's also their right. So it's a very
delicate balancing act and that without being too dramatic, I
mean figuratively, you kind of hold your breath because you
just don't know who the next organisation might be. That
might be saying, hand up, we're in a bit of strife.

S5 (23:30):
I think that's life in general. I can only do
what I can do when I know what I know.
And you don't know what you don't know. That all
sounds very confusing, doesn't it?

S2 (23:39):
No, I think well, I yeah, I mean, I wasn't
saying can you do something about it, but I guess,
as you say, that the way the land lies at
the moment, it's a pretty precarious path. A lot of
these organisations are treading.

S5 (23:49):
It is. And through multiple reform processes, people have moved
their business model to be reliant upon certain funding models
and certain pricing schedules. And a system suddenly is reviewed again,
and it's acknowledged that there's a lack of sustainability and
an inability to continue doing the same thing over and
over again. And we know that things have to change.

(24:11):
It's difficult when you're operating not for profits or charities
or service delivery agencies because, you know, just because you're
not for profit, it doesn't mean you're for loss. So
all of those things become very challenging. And I do
hope that we don't get too many people going down
the same path. But I do know the pressures that
operations are under?

S2 (24:32):
Yeah, I think the few music therapists that would be
hearing your tune, if I could put it that way.
I know there is a bit of good news, though.
Not long ago you talked about the APY lands. So
not long ago you were up in the hills opening
a pool, which is obviously a great thing for those locals.

S5 (24:45):
Absolutely sensational. And I heard so many great stories up there.
Not only have they got the pool, but it's a massive,
you know, there's multiple pools for different purposes. Number one,
which is great. Number two, there is an absolutely extraordinary
Changing Places facility in there which we've been part of
the funding for. So that allows wheelchair users and other

(25:09):
people with mobility or other broader behavioural challenges, even to
have a big space with equipment to support them, to
be able to change before and after the pool, go
to the bathroom. It's just awesome. And the entry and
exit to the pools with all the ramps, that's incredible.
So I think there was plenty of accessible designated parking

(25:32):
as well, which I thought was great. There's lifts. It's
so good, very good.

S2 (25:36):
And also a lot of evidence to show that aquatherapy
can be very, very good for people of all ages
and all abilities.

S5 (25:41):
Well, you know Peter.

S2 (25:43):
Well, background.

S5 (25:44):
Yeah. You know, I've worked in a lot of areas.
One of them rehab. And if I know anything, that
gentle resistance against water can really do wonders for muscular
strength and coordination. It's also much safer doing that walking
in the water rather than on land. Sometimes for people
with unsteady. If they can hold on to that grab

(26:04):
rail and just exercise. It's so good.

S2 (26:07):
Terrific. Um, October is a big month for, uh, the
other hat that you wear. As far as our seniors go,
October is the big month. It's highlighted.

S5 (26:14):
Yeah. So good we've had yesterday. I attended a couple
of local events earlier in the week. I also attended
a couple of local events, and Wednesday was the International
Day of Older Persons. So there was several things going
on there. I visited a nursing home up at Flagstaff
Hill for their high tea, and had some great conversations

(26:35):
with seniors there who participating in in life differently now
that they've got bigger degree of dependence. But there was
lots of family members there too, enjoying the afternoon with
their loved ones at the nursing home there, celebrating International
Day of Older Persons. So this week has been full
of all of those celebrations as well being the week

(26:55):
of aging. So there's been a focus on making sure, yes,
we want to age, but we want to age well
and be part of community, part of decision making and opportunity.
So that's been excellent. And then from tomorrow through to
next week there is the National Carers Week. So the
theme for that is you are one know one or

(27:18):
will be one. And that's pretty profound isn't it.

S2 (27:21):
Isn't it. Yeah.

S5 (27:22):
Yeah it does turn your mind to that.

S2 (27:24):
And of course, they play such an important role. I mean,
the support workers do a great job with things like
the NDIS and, you know, in aged care, etc. but
it's their personal carers that do a huge job in
terms of, well, it is literally incalculable.

S5 (27:37):
Yeah, correct. Funded things can support the payment of support
workers to provide that personal care, but it's the unpaid
carers as well that really do a lot of the
hard work when it comes to supporting their loved ones
and friends and family neighbours in the community. The statement
of the theme makes you reflect on the fact that

(27:58):
if you do help people in your community and at
some point in your life, you may do more for
particular members of your family. So when we as a
government commit to supporting carers and supporting events that raise awareness,
it's because we want to give that message to people
that we see what they're doing, we hear about what
they're doing and we're there for them. So yeah, I

(28:20):
think it's a couple of really great Celebrations with Carers
Week and the Week of Ageing well in the first
couple of weeks of the month.

S2 (28:27):
And some of these carers, young kids that are still
at school and trying to juggle that, plus being a
carer and being a teenager or being a young person.
So it's very much a very full dance card that
they've got.

S5 (28:37):
Yeah, absolutely. I've spoken to carers as young as five. Yeah, yeah.
Who um who, you know, take their responsibilities as a
carer really seriously. And I think there's been some great
work happened through education to include the yield of that
information about families, like if when a young person enters
school or they're in a school in their survey, as

(28:59):
I understand it, they're asking if there is any carer
responsibilities that they're undertaking, because often that can be a
reason for kids and young people to be late for
school or miss more time, or need a more flexible
approach to their learning. Last year, I think it was.
I attended a young carer session and listened to a

(29:19):
young man from WA to speak about his role as
a carer for his sister, his sibling who had significant disability.
And this young man's a high achiever. He's doing really well.
I think he was going on to uni, but the
thing that helps him the most is people just understanding
that sometimes things aren't quite right, and sometimes he can't

(29:42):
contribute the full amount of time that he needs to.
So I think that's a good message for educators. It's
a good message for community members as well that in
houses all across our state, there are people who need
a bit of help from their family. And sometimes that
family can be very young and trying to be young
and grow up and study and do all of those

(30:04):
things is a big challenge. When you have a great
sense of responsibility towards your sibling or your mum or
your grandma, your dad that you need to and want to,
and you should be able to provide some extra time
for them too, but at the same time, Stay young,
be young and enjoy the life ahead of you.

S2 (30:22):
And we certainly ain't that the way you talk about
resistance training? And I thought you might be taking over
Darren Burgess's job at the crows.

S5 (30:28):
Oh, mate, there's things I can't talk about. Um, there
may be breaking news.

S2 (30:32):
Okay. All right, well, we'll stand by for that. You
had it. You heard it here first. That we'll catch
up again soon.

S5 (30:40):
My friend. It is cricket season. Season? That is what
we're talking about. Not alright.

S2 (30:46):
Alright. We'll speak soon. That.

S5 (30:47):
No worries. See you.

S2 (30:49):
So, Human Services Minister Nat Cooke, who is good fun,
but also some really interesting points there made about all
sorts of things. So we take Nat for a time
and a team also we just put Nat to hear.
Let's hear from our health expert David Mitchell. Join us
around about this time the first week of each month. David, welcome.

S6 (31:10):
Well g'day, Peter. Hello, everyone.

S2 (31:12):
David. Uh, melatonin. It's been in the news a little
bit lately, isn't it?

S6 (31:17):
Isn't it? It's looked down on the typical Irish ABC 50,
and there's a huge amount of Trumpism involved in it,
because one only distributor or certain international sales person in
Iherb decided that they needed to stop selling it to Australia.
And Amazon came the same sort of scenario. So that's

(31:38):
in a sense it's ridiculous. They based it on the
thought that there were a few hundred extra people ringing, uh,
the poison center saying that their child had taken melatonin.
It turns out the child had pinched the melatonin from
the parents and just decided there were no poisonous type, uh,
reports based on it. It was just the number of
people ringing. But based on that, some idiot, presumably. And

(32:03):
I heard who was voting for Donald Trump and said
we should make this huge gesture and stop Australians, but
not the rest of the world, stop Australians from taking melatonin.
Now that is crazy because there is no nasty, poisonous
or death that can occur with taking melatonin. And the
reason it is important is that it's an incredibly important

(32:26):
hormone in our system that is made in the pineal
gland from exposure to sunlight through the day, and it
is made out of B12, folic acid and serotonin and noradrenaline,
and released before dusk or at around dusk. It puts
us to sleep. And guess what it does the you
get into the zone which is repair, restore, recovery, regulate, reorganise, reallocate, review, replay, retain, retrain, relearn, reset,

(32:56):
Resynchronize release and make us ready for the next day.
If we haven't got enough melatonin, then we're going to
miss out on some of these words. Pretty impressive. I
would I would suggest.

S2 (33:07):
15 words I counted, 15 are words.

S6 (33:09):
Oh 15 right.

S2 (33:11):
Yeah yeah.

S6 (33:12):
Yeah. This morning when I woke up, I got 11
of them. Because I my master's that I did with
the University of New England was based around melatonin, serotonin, noradrenaline,
B12 and folic acid as part of the mother father
gene that I've often spoken about because up to 40%

(33:34):
of the world don't use or convert B12 and folic
acid into the right chemicals to make the melatonin. So
there is a chance of of the, as we get
older to notice that more and more and more that
we do need to relook at it. And melatonin is
a simple safe supplement to take, but it is dose related.

(33:56):
So to get into the zone you often only need
a very small amount. I often say that Australians need
less melatonin than others because we had more sunshine, or
we take advantage of more sunshine because that's what the
stimulus to make it. So if we look at it
from that angle, then as we get older, we start

(34:17):
to sleep less or have less sleep. And people said, oh,
that's just aging. But in fact it's actually correlated to
the lack of the production of melatonin as we get older.
And so there's a greater need. But on the other
side of it is that there's now that the greater
emphasis on the autism spectrum and ADHD in guess what?

(34:37):
There are some a lot of them, one would say
have an issue with sleep. And that in turn it
can be related either to the gene or other genes,
or it can just be related to the lack of
production of melatonin. So taking a small dose can be
fantastic for kids. Now arguably you could say to kids, right, well,

(34:58):
we're going to do a three week trial here and
give it to you for three weeks. And then we're
going to stop it. And we're going to compare whether
you sleep better or less with it. And then we
can do it in doses rather than necessarily all the time.
But it does tend to be safe. And I can
certainly say that I started describing this back in the
mid 90s, around about 95 or 96. I've been taking

(35:20):
ever since, sometimes intermittently. So I take more in winter
and less in summer because the sun might affect. It's
been brilliant and it is safe. And the thing about
it is that if you take too much and I
experimented on it before I gave it to anyone else
or recommended anywhere else, is that if you take too much,

(35:43):
either you sleep in a groggy sleep too long and
you're groggy the next morning, or you don't sleep at all.
Because I remember when I got to a ten milligram dose,
then I stayed awake for two days or two nights,
so it was brilliant. I actually made two videos for
her medical training. That's not something I'd recommend, but did

(36:05):
show me also it as you take more and more
of it. You can also find you have kind of
disturbed sleep or crazy dreams. So all of those are fine.
You just back off the dose. So you would normally
start with, say a one milligram can you can get
half a milligram, 0.5 or 1mg. And you get the

(36:26):
dissolving ones that are quick, quick acting and you take
it anything up to two hours before bed. But most
people take it when they get to bed. You know,
you take a tiny bit, say, a quarter of a dose.
Now this this applies to kids as well as adults.
And you try that. And if you had any of those,
then you back off to a lesser one. You can

(36:47):
even get drops if you need to go less than
half a milligram if you don't. But you're noticing that
you are sleeping better and waking better with all those
other words. All 15 of them. Um, then terrific. Stay
at that level. That's that's the important thing, is not
to just keep going because more is not necessarily better.
Each of us requires a certain amount, and as we

(37:10):
get older, we require a little bit more. So we
we base it around that. But Sterling, with the quick acting,
short lasting dissolving ones is the way to go. But
if you get any of those sorts of side effects,
back off. Stop it for a couple of nights and
then take a lesser dose is the way to go.
Now the second bit is that the melatonin comes in

(37:30):
basically in two forms. One one is that it's the
quick acting, short lasting one, which will last 2 to
4 hours. And that may that his aim is to
get you to sleep. And if you're lucky, it'll keep
you asleep. But if you're finding that you're running out
of it rather than taking more of it, you take
a slow release, one that is slowly released over six

(37:51):
or more hours so that you get a longer sleep.
So if you're waking that you know that horrible zone
of 1:00 Am to 4 a.m., you certainly need the
slow release, long lasting one. And some people need a
combination and you can buy combinations. Now we started talking
about how Iherb and Amazon aren't selling to Australia, but

(38:14):
there are other very reputable distributors of very good, high quality,
high ethical standards like piping Rock and Life Extension. They
are two of the other big ones, and certainly life
extension has been this standby for me as the arbiter
of the best quality of any of these sort of

(38:36):
substances that you can get them from, from America. It
may take up to three weeks to deliver. The prices
are good. You cannot buy it over the counter in Australia,
but you can bring it in from overseas. If you
get a go to the doctor, you can get a
prescription for a small dose of melatonin, but it is

(38:57):
usually in a capsule form and it's usually just one dose.
And it's a medium acting one so it doesn't really
give you the full gamut or it doesn't really treat
that can't get to sleep or on waking or combinations
of them waking up between 1 and 4 a.m.. If
that's happening, then obviously we've just talked about how you

(39:17):
would need the sliding one, but sometimes you need both.
That's seriously how it goes and to get you back
into the zone. And that's the sort of thing that
you can take on again, off again, forever and a
day with much better results in the way the brain
works and the way the body works and the way
things work.

S2 (39:38):
So David helps with sleep, but if you're anxious or
if you've got stress in your life, then that might
not be the total answer. The melatonin might not be
the total answer.

S6 (39:49):
That's correct. Melatonin by itself does. It helps restore and
refresh you, but it doesn't necessarily totally calm you down.
That's related to the serotonin and noradrenaline effects within the body.
And that's that happens before you make melatonin or it.
In other words, if you're taking melatonin, it's gone past

(40:11):
the time that that it has a major. That he's
missed out on the chance to having a positive effect
on the serotonin and noradrenaline. But it does at least
mean that if you're taking it, then the amount of
noradrenaline and and serotonin that you're making can be used
as an anti anxiety or an antidepressant type effect and

(40:36):
have the best of both worlds. So that's another good
way of looking at it. It also means that people
that are taking antidepressants that are based on reusing or
reusing or recycling or retaining serotonin and noradrenaline, that keeps
it going. The melatonin can have a positive effect in
making that that come to a better point. Um, so

(40:59):
it's worth saying it is safe to take, but remember,
you're an individual and it's dose related, so you've got
to titrate or test yourself against the dose and start
with a small dose, not start at the other end.
And I do make the point too, that it's just
before this, this embargo happened, but it only affects Australia. Remember,

(41:22):
the rest of the world can buy this stuff. There's
something special about Australia. We're different. Uh, it's crazy to
ignore that. And you can take it. So that's that's
worth thinking. But China has gotten onto this, and they
are selling melatonin in doses of 20 or 50mg, and

(41:43):
usually the maximum for sleep purposes or age, anti-aging purposes
is going to be between 5 and 10mg max. So
avoid anything above ten. But consider that especially in Australia.
Somewhere in between 3 and 5 is going to be
the average for kids somewhere between half a milligram and

(42:05):
three milligrams. So don't buy the big dose because it
can just knock you out. Like we said, it's going
to sleep for days or stay awake for days or
have crazy dreams.

S2 (42:17):
Now, David, I don't want to get your blood pressure
up because, you know, I think highly of you. But
if I was to say, what do you think of
homeopathic melatonin? Would you go right off the rails?

S6 (42:27):
I used to go. When people know.

S2 (42:29):
That.

S6 (42:30):
There's a there's a couple of Australian company. It's labelled melatonin.
But you see a tiny six x near the title
or somewhere in it. And these are homeopathic. Homeopathic melatonin
is meant to be the reversal of sleep. There's actually
meant to keep you awake, but it's never going to

(42:52):
give you any melatonin. So do not buy in Australia
or an Australian brand have to buy from overseas. And
as I say, look, look around on the internet and
find at least consider that life extension is the number
one choice and piping Rock as the second choice. Until
such time as I heard, which is the biggest one

(43:13):
in the world and using the cheapest and quickest. But
that's not happening at the moment. So in the interim,
I was.

S2 (43:21):
Terrific. Hey, David, just for a bit of fun. Do
you want to give us, like, 15 words again just
to wrap up the whole event?

S6 (43:28):
I can even give you a short article with it,
with them on it if people want to know. Alright.

S2 (43:33):
So he wrote that through to me and thanks to
all the people that contacted us last time regarding your
vitamin D and the the prostate, uh, situation, actually, curiously enough,
we had more women than men that asked for the information, but, uh,
I'm sure they would have, uh, distributed it to their
loved one, which is very important as well.

S6 (43:52):
Well, that's that's why we have women as look after.

S2 (43:57):
One of those 15 words. Come on.

S6 (43:58):
All right. Repair. Restore. Recovery. Regulate. Reorganize. Reallocate, review, replay, retain, retrain, relearn, reset,
resynchronize release and make you ready for the next day.

S2 (44:14):
Well, I'm ready for our next interview next month. David,
that was tremendous. We'll catch up again in November.

S6 (44:19):
Okay? Goodbye, all.

S2 (44:21):
Sir David Mitchell, our health commentator David will send that
information through. So if you'd like a copy of it,
get in touch and we'll email you that as well.

(44:46):
Are the Uber reliable? Polly has just put the kettle on,
which means Belinda will also be on the line from
Brewed by Belinda. Belinda. Great to catch up.

S7 (44:56):
Hello, Peter.

S2 (44:57):
Now, the last time we spoke, for those that heard it,
you were about to do something very exciting for those
that might have missed it or those that might need reminding.
What happened in the last few weeks.

S7 (45:07):
I undertook an amazing t tour to South Korea.

S2 (45:12):
I'd just come about.

S7 (45:13):
My teacher, Sharon Johnston from Australian Tea Masters occasionally runs
t tours, so sort of immersions into different tea growing regions,
and I received some funding back in 2020 from the
Food and Beverage Development Fund of South Australia, um, to
go to South Korea. But because of Covid it'd been

(45:36):
had been put off. But finally, yeah, we've just been um,
in early September. So finally it's happened. Absolutely amazing.

S2 (45:47):
Was the wait worthwhile?

S7 (45:48):
Oh my goodness. It was Absolutely amazing in terms of
how much I learnt and, you know, just the depth
of knowledge that I was able to sort of soak
up in just a short amount of time just by
being there in the tea fields and experiencing things hands on. Um,
it was just a really life changing experience for me.

S2 (46:11):
Is that the closest you've been to a, you know,
sort of a commercially grown, uh, Ricky Edge t field?

S7 (46:17):
Yes. It is. And I guess the great thing is
that while we were there, we visited quite a number
of tea fields. So being able to see the kind of, um,
you know, the very historic sites as well as kind of,
you know, innovations in new fields like small tea fields
and then really big yield tea fields, like it was very, um,
varied and. Yeah, really interesting.

S2 (46:40):
So you were there in September. So what time of
the year is it there, and how does that kind
of compare with, um, their sort of tea preparation time
of their tea harvest or whatever the correct term is.

S7 (46:51):
Yeah. So we yeah, we were there in September, which
is coming into the start of autumn. So the weather
was actually really quite hot and humid there. The tea
is peaked in spring. So it wasn't the the time
that they're sort of picking the new spring growth, but
rather the time when, you know, they're actually letting the,
the tea bushes sort of go a bit and ready

(47:13):
to kind of go into that dormant winter. So yeah,
things were not sort of as manicured and the fields
weren't being sort of as worked as much as they
would have been, you know, had we gone in spring. But,
you know, still, so much to kind of see there's
still tea being picked and produced. Um, but yeah, it's
usually in spring when the new spring growth comes. That's

(47:35):
the kind of main tea production time.

S2 (47:39):
So tea season, if you like, is it's 12 months
like every 12 months. It's, uh, it takes 12 months
to sort of grow a batch of tea, if I
can put it like that.

S7 (47:48):
Yes. In terms of those first, it's called a first flush. Yeah.
When it's the first pick after the dormant winter, when
spring comes and the new leaf comes, that's the first flush.
And you can have second and third flushes of teas
that are picked. Um, but it's that first spring flush that,
you know, is said to have the, you know, most
amazing flavors. And it's usually the tea that everybody wants,

(48:11):
but some tea gardens will pick at just certain times
of the year. And they often work in with the
lunar calendar. And then other gardens will produce year round.
I guess it depends what types of tea they're making
and what their sort of market is.

S2 (48:27):
I guess, uh, certainly in the career that they would
kind of run to the lunar calendar, wouldn't they? Rather
our calendar? That'd be right, wouldn't it?

S7 (48:33):
Yes, I believe so. Yeah.

S2 (48:35):
Yeah. Well, what are some of the things that kind
of impressed you? I mean, you weren't at tea picking time,
but you would have seen these, uh, vast fields of tea. What?
What kind of hit you? Uh, sort of, you know,
first up, as it were. What kind of made an impression?

S7 (48:48):
I think just really kind of taking in the history of,
of t, you know, the first tea seeds were were
sown in South Korea in. 828 A.D., I believe, okay.
So a very long time ago and just really clocking that, um,
you know, seeds were brought over from China and ordered
by the king at the time to be planted in

(49:11):
an area called Mount Jiri, which is in Hadong, which
is where the first um site we visited in the
southern mountainous regions of South Korea. So just kind of clocking,
you know, the history and you know, just how deeply
ingrained in this culture. And also, I guess one of
the things that also struck me was standing in the

(49:32):
tea fields for the first time in my life, there
was such a beauty and a peace and some kind
of calm that was just on a whole other level,
and it really made me think about how when we
drink and share tea and the calm that we feel,
how it's sort of just inherent in the leaf, somehow

(49:53):
of the the peace and quiet out in those fields. Nature,
you know, just doing its beautiful thing. And then how
that kind of comes through in your cup, I don't know,
there was something that just really landed with me about that.

S2 (50:07):
I haven't spoke to you for 2 or 3 years now, Belinda.
I think we can kind of identify that because, I mean,
without sort of going overboard. It's kind of, you know,
almost a spiritual experience, if I could put it like that.

S7 (50:18):
Yeah, I think so, absolutely. I mean, everyone's different and
has a different.

S2 (50:21):
Yeah.

S7 (50:22):
But yeah, I was really struck by the calm and
the peace that I felt. Um, I guess it was quiet,
you know, the birds were singing, they were bathed. They were,
you know, it was just really lovely to kind of
be at the very source of, you know, this thing
that I love so much. And it was really breathtaking, um,

(50:42):
landscape and yeah, beautiful people. So it was just a
really lovely time.

S2 (50:48):
I was going to ask you about that. Do you
find that, you know, the people that are doing this
kind of work are very proud of the work that
they do, and you can kind of sense that. I'm
not sure if the language barrier was there or whether
they spoke English, but could you kind of get a
bit of a sense of the pride that they have
in their work and how important that sort of thing
is to them both? I guess, to, you know, earn money,
but also as a sort of an experience to to

(51:09):
grow something that people are going to enjoy.

S7 (51:11):
Yeah, absolutely. We traveled with, um, a professor called Fred Yu,
who is amazing. He, um, was able to sort of
share a lot of really great information when we visited
each site. And he was able to translate between, um,
you know, the farmers that we were meeting and then, um,
you know, the participants on the tour. So we were

(51:32):
getting this really great depth of information translated for us,
meeting the the growers and the farmers, a lot of them.
Sort of these, these T fields are passed down through families.
So we went to one. Um, the Dane day one garden.
We went to um, one called Bossong Jada and that

(51:54):
was too young. A brother and a sister who was
sort of working the business on behalf of their parents
and really getting a sense of that family lineage. Um,
there was another wonderful farmer at Mong Junsung day one. Sorry.

S2 (52:10):
You're doing very well, Belinda. I'm very impressed.

S7 (52:13):
And, you know, his farm was, like, humongous. And it
was completely organic and all about, um, biodiversity and the
way he was sort of talking about how he works,
you know, with nature. Yeah. So getting a sense that
there's a lot of pride, they, you know, they their
hearts are in it. They work super hard. There's a

(52:34):
lot of kind of family involvement and yeah, Definitely something
that's very important and respected in this, you know, long
culture of tea in South Korea.

S2 (52:46):
It's such an important thing that respect, isn't it? Belinda,
you talked about it being mountainous country. Is that kind
of the best sort of country for for tea growing,
to have the the mountains and that kind of environment?

S7 (52:57):
Yeah. Well, I think they were all. Yeah, it was
a very sort of mountainous and hilly, um, you know,
some teas were sort of grown on rocky kind of
mountain sides and the rocks and the minerals from those
rocks can kind of seep into the, uh, the tea
leaf in terms of flavor profiles. So you get these

(53:18):
kind of teas grown in the rockier areas that have
a certain profile. And then, yeah, I guess that kind
of the, the cool, kind of these cool misty fogs
would kind of settle over, um, the rolling hills and
then it would sort of clear and you'd have the sun.
So there was a certain sort of humidity and moisture
that was sort of protecting the tea bushes from the

(53:39):
harsh sun with this sort of low fog that would
set in at times of day. And so, yeah, I
think it is sort of perfect growing conditions in those
southern mountainous areas of, of the country. Um, but yeah,
very varied landscapes in terms of where some of the
gardens were and how big and small they were. And. Yeah,
it was. Yeah.

S2 (53:59):
Well, Belinda, so it's poetic now, of course, Seoul is
the capital of Korea, and I know you spent some
time there. We might talk about that next time. So
how far out is this tea growing area from the city?
Is it a kind of a long way out?

S7 (54:11):
Yeah. So, I mean, Seoul's up near the sort of
top of the border between North and South Korea, whereas
this we were right down the bottom of the country.
So it was we took a fast train and it
was about a 3 to 4 hour trip. All right. Yeah.
We explored three different regions along that bottom southern area.
So yeah, a region on the coast, Bosung and then

(54:32):
Hadong and um, oh my gosh, I can't remember the
last one.

S2 (54:37):
Well, you've done very well to remember the names and
express the names the way you have. You've been very impressed. Now,
if people want to contact you about tea, how can
we find you? You're now online.

S7 (54:48):
Yeah, absolutely. So my website, you can contact me through that. Um,
but also yeah. View all about what I do. So.

S2 (54:59):
Write 0419 839 702 is your phone number. Now, I know you
went to some tea ceremonies, which sounds really fascinating, so
we might save that up for next time. So I
think that'd be something we'd love to hear about as well.

S7 (55:11):
Sounds great.

S2 (55:12):
Brenda, thank you for that. Welcome home. And, um, well,
you probably, uh, now need a little bit of a rest,
but also getting back into it to, uh, maybe put
some of the stuff that you learned into practice.

S7 (55:22):
Absolutely.

S8 (55:23):
I'm soaking it all up.

S2 (55:25):
Thanks, Linda.

S7 (55:26):
Thanks, Peter. Thanks, everyone.

S2 (55:28):
Brenda. Hello there from Brew the Brew. Bob Lynda.com is
the website if you need to find out more details
and all that information up with our show notes.

S9 (55:39):
Hi, I'm Trish Crockford, coach of the Mighty Rubies netball team,
and you're listening to Leisure Link with Peter Greco on
the Vision Australia radio network.

S2 (55:50):
Techfest is almost here. October 9th is coming Thursday to
you city in the City of Adelaide. Nathan is here
and you're also going to be there. He's from Pacific Vision.
It's always great to catch up. Thanks for your time.

S10 (56:03):
Hi, Peter. I'm good. How are you?

S2 (56:05):
I'm going pretty well. Looking forward to Techfest because I'm
sure there's going to be lots of things. Now, your
ally glasses is something that I think people would be
very interested in. Tell us a bit about them.

S10 (56:14):
Yes. So these are new assistive tech glasses. So the
new wearable from envision. So they have been already doing
the envision glasses. Now they have gone on a joint
venture with solos from Hong Kong. So they have come
up with this new ally, these glasses you know let
you interact with your environment by just talking, reading menus, recognizing,

(56:36):
recognizing the surroundings, objects, people, and much more. They are
pretty much AI assistant. You can just do anything. The
feature of what they have used is was already present
in vision glasses, so they just loaded the alley feature
on these new glasses and they are adding some more
to it to make it a complete package.

S2 (56:54):
What about in terms of the look? Because I know
you know, if you're blind or low vision, you probably
don't care what they look like. But people that might
see you and they might care or close people that
are close to you might care, or you might indeed
care about what they look like. Are they are they pretty?
Pretty cool.

S10 (57:09):
They have gone with this company from Hong Kong called solos.
They are pretty much the experts in making the frames,
so they have gone with them. The hardware comes from
solos and the software is from vision. They will be
available in three different options three different colors, and they're
very similar glasses. And if somebody wants to, you know,
put in any other prescription lenses and things like that.

(57:32):
They can do that.

S2 (57:33):
Okay. What about some of its features? It's obviously very
reliant on AI. I guess that's the way of the
world these days. I know having spoken to you in
the past, you kind of think that the wearable, uh, theme,
if you like, is something that is going to be
very prominent going forward.

S10 (57:46):
Yes. The advantage is your hands are free and, you know,
you just are talking to them and you are getting
a lot of information and they're connected to your phone
through Bluetooth. It's like a full package where everything is connected.
You are even taking your calls. Its read anything from
sign menus. Describe scene like you know earlier what the
Ali used to do identify objects, scan documents, search even web.

(58:08):
You know if you want to have a quick something
comes to your mind. Okay, how's the weather today? Or
you know, what is the nearest supermarket? Things like that.
So you can just just like any other virtual assistant
like Siri or Google Home. And all these features are
inbuilt in the wearables instead of taking out your phone,
looking at it, using it. It's all hands free. Everything
is just by gestures and voice commands.

S2 (58:30):
What about in terms of being able to use it?
I see some of the information about it. Talks about
maybe older people might get some real use from it.
So is it quite intuitive to use?

S10 (58:40):
Yes, it's quite simplified. Uh, device. You see, it's just
by tapping on and tapping off kind of a gesture.
That's all you have to do. Frankly speaking, we haven't
seen the hardware yet. We have just seen it on
the videos.

S2 (58:54):
I think I've seen a couple of the videos, but
it certainly sounds all very impressive.

S10 (58:59):
It looks very impressive. Yeah. We had a discussion with
the envision team, and they are still working on enhancing
the features, making it more and more user friendly. Might
get a demo device for the tech show. I'm pushing
for them to send one straight to Adelaide, if they
can just show how at least these people can touch
and feel and see how.

S2 (59:20):
Yeah.

S10 (59:21):
Looks like.

S2 (59:21):
Yeah, you might have to look at you might get
knocked over in the rush. Mahesh. It might be a
few people pretty keen to have a look at that.

S10 (59:27):
And the only trouble is that that's not the only thing.
There's another exciting thing which will be showcasing in the
tech fest this year as well.

S2 (59:35):
Okay. Come on, get us out of suspense. What is.

S10 (59:37):
It? Okay, so this is, uh, this is called Ashira.
Have you. Have you ever heard of this?

S2 (59:45):
No, no, I have not heard of it.

S10 (59:46):
Okay, so this is a GPS device, the foot based
GPS navigation device. So you just clip on this device
to your feet, your shoe, and you can just walk around.
It's connected to a navigation app. And through vibrations, it
guides you, you know, to go around without without you. Yes.

S2 (01:00:04):
Okay. That's a bit sort.

S10 (01:00:06):
Of this is a it's a joint venture. So this
is the it's a product from Honda. So it's a
Honda's first startup. Actually one of the family members in
the Honda is the person who has this condition. And
he he has worked on this and they have been
using this in Japan for the last three years. They
have about 700 users across Japan and they will be

(01:00:26):
launching it overseas. So Australia might be the first market
to come. Wow. I've been testing it in Australia and
testing with guide dogs and see differently. Also will be,
you know, do some tests when we are there. This
is something very exciting. Another device which will hit the
market most probably by end of this year. So we're
doing the research, getting the feedback, making sure the maps

(01:00:47):
are working absolutely fine.

S2 (01:00:49):
That's amazing. A company like Honda getting involved I mean
they're you know, they're one of the big corporates of
the world aren't they.

S10 (01:00:55):
Yes. It's something very exciting.

S2 (01:00:57):
I'd say their research and development budget would be a
bit bigger than a lot of the specialist companies that
we know of, but we'll leave that there. Mahesh, you'll
also be bringing your usual, uh, things like, uh, electronic magnifiers.

S10 (01:01:09):
Yes. The electronic magnifiers, the, you know, the handheld ones.
Ryan has also come out with a new round, uh,
handheld magnifiers. Digital magnifiers. So that is another new thing.
So there'll be lots of new stuff on the tech
show this time to show. I'm pretty sure it'll be.
It'll be very busy time and we will have our expertise.
We have. And with us. A lady from Ashira is

(01:01:29):
also coming down from Japan, so.

S2 (01:01:31):
Oh, terrific.

S10 (01:01:32):
Yes, yes.

S2 (01:01:33):
That's a great thing, isn't it? Because I guess for
them they can do some market testing, you know, get
people's initial reactions straight away, which would be very good
for whatever they decide to do going forward.

S10 (01:01:43):
Absolutely, absolutely. That is the idea, you know, just to
get the feedback, get as much as information from the users.
So yes.

S2 (01:01:50):
And for people like Braille or audio, I noticed that
the newest version of the braille, set six, has just
been updated in the last couple of days or so,
and people seem to be, uh, receiving that very well.
And of course, your book player or your audio player,
that the player will also be there for people to
have a look at. If they don't know of it.

S10 (01:02:08):
We'll have all the all the stuff. The Braille and six,
the sense player, the emotion which is which is started
picking up now the braille display, the 40 cell braille display,
it all will be there and will showcase some stuff
from the orbit research as well. They are also very
keen on launching their products in Australia, so we'll have
some stuff from the orbit research as well. So specifically,

(01:02:31):
you know, targeting the education department will have some talking calculators,
scientific calculators, then the Qwerty keyboard, uh braille display. So
there'll be a lot. So make sure you're there.

S2 (01:02:42):
Peter I don't know if I can wait that long.
Mahesh I want to say Wednesday night.

S10 (01:02:47):
Just just one more week to go. So.

S2 (01:02:50):
Yeah. No. That's right. That's great. Now people can find
out more about, uh, Pacific Vision because you've got your
new website, which you launched a few months ago. You
told us about. How's that going?

S10 (01:03:01):
Yes, it's it's going pretty good. We are getting a
good response. And we had, uh, feedback also from people.
We have done some changes after the feedback.

S2 (01:03:08):
Excellent.

S10 (01:03:09):
More than happy. You know, people should go and check
out these new products which have come from Orbit Research
and they are available for sale and as well as information.
And we will keep adding the new stuff as it comes.
So Pacific vision a US dot com. Go and have
a look. There's a lot of stuff there so have
a look for sure.

S2 (01:03:28):
You got a phone number there as well if people
want to give you a call 1300 756 849.

S10 (01:03:34):
Or you can directly get in touch with me at 0451 332 885.

S2 (01:03:39):
All right. We'll put those details up for those show notes.
And it's best if they can contact see differently either
via the website see differently. Org or give them a
call 13094306 and reserve their spot just so they know
how many people are going. So that's coming Thursday, the
9th of October at Yeast City in Franklin Street in
the city of Adelaide gets underway from about 10:00 three

(01:04:01):
till about five. So if you work until later in
the day, you can go after work until 5:00. So
it should be a great day. I look forward to
seeing you there and thanks for spending some time with us.

S10 (01:04:11):
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And just the one last thing. Sorry
I missed, uh, if somebody wants to have a look
at these new handheld magnifiers. The round ones. They're already
at the store, so please go and have a look.
They're really nice and very, very nicely priced.

S2 (01:04:26):
All right. Thank you.

S10 (01:04:27):
Thank you very much, Peter. Again, lovely talking to you.
And I'm looking forward to seeing you.

S2 (01:04:31):
That's right back there a bit of a character. I
look forward to meeting you as well or catching up
with him again. I've been there before. Always good to
shake his hand. So that's coming Thursday, the 9th of October.
If you get a chance to get along, do. Because
if you haven't been for a little while, it sounds
like there's lots of new things to try out and
check out. Or there may be some good news for
some people who may be eligible for a treatment that's

(01:04:54):
just been approved by the TGA. Let's find out a
bit more about it from Austin Health and speak to
Professor Christopher. Christopher, thank you so much for your time
and welcome.

S11 (01:05:02):
Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

S2 (01:05:03):
Tell us a bit about this treatment and the fact
that the TGA have now approved it.

S11 (01:05:08):
Well, it's a new class of drug. There has been
one similar drug approved about two months ago. This is
the next one. and it's an antibody that's injected into
the bloodstream, finds its way up into the brain, latches
onto amyloid plaques in the brain, which we think are
the cause of Alzheimer's disease. And that tells the brain

(01:05:30):
to clear those plaques away. And trials have now shown
quite convincingly that if this is done, it slows down
the rate at which you decline. If you have Alzheimer's disease.

S2 (01:05:43):
There's not a lot for me to getting very excited
about a breakthrough. Christopher. So we expect you to keep
it in perspective. So I guess this is particularly important
for people in the earlier stages.

S11 (01:05:53):
Exactly. That's one of the crucial things. Getting the amyloid
out after there's too much damage done doesn't do any good.
So you have to be diagnosed relatively early and get
this treatment early while you're still in the mild stage
of dementia, or even hopefully before that, just when you've

(01:06:14):
got a memory problem, but you're still coping reasonably well
with it.

S2 (01:06:18):
If the diagnosis, um, well, are there a number of
people who may have this condition that could be eligible
but haven't as yet been diagnosed?

S11 (01:06:26):
Yes. Studies looking at what is called mild cognitive impairment
in the community shows that about 50% of people with
it haven't sought medical attention. So my message is that
you need to see your doctor get a referral to
a specialist sooner rather than later. If your memory is

(01:06:49):
definitely declining. Don't wait until you need help from people
to do your usual daily activities. Get it investigated early
because that's when these drugs are most effective.

S2 (01:07:02):
What kind of role can family members, loved ones? People
close to someone who might be in this sort of
situation play? Because I guess, you know, we don't want
to think the worst. But by the same token, if
we can can't be proactive that that's that can be
a good thing too.

S11 (01:07:15):
So firstly, in getting that early diagnosis, the family, if
they're noticing the person's getting repetitive, they're forgetting important events
like appointments, not paying the bills. Then they should strongly
encourage that person to go and see their doctor. The

(01:07:36):
other thing is healthy lifestyle. So brain health is the
same as heart health in a way. You've got to
not smoke. You've got to exercise. Keep your alcohol intake
to a low level, keep socially active. And if you
have blood pressure, make sure it's very well controlled. So

(01:07:57):
these things do reduce your risk of developing dementia, of
which Alzheimer's disease is just one cause. It is the
major cause in about 60%. And this drug is only
for people with Alzheimer's disease. But generally overall, if you
live a healthy lifestyle, you certainly delay your wrist, delay

(01:08:17):
the time at which you are likely to get dementia.
In fact, Görgei found that already compared to our previous generation,
where 60% less likely to have dementia at a given
age than our parents.

S2 (01:08:32):
Okay.

S11 (01:08:32):
And this has to do with much healthier lifestyle.

S2 (01:08:36):
We're pretty confident that the amyloid plaque plays an important role.
So I guess we're sure that this drug works on
amyloid plaque. I guess, you know, we're attacking the right thing,
if I can put it that way.

S11 (01:08:47):
Yeah. The only problem is the amyloid, after it's been
sitting there for ten years or so, stimulates other bad things.
And one in particular is tau tangles. Once you've got
a brain full of tau tangles, removing the amyloid doesn't
do you any good. So that's another reason to get
this treatment very early. In fact, there's trials now going

(01:09:08):
on and people have got amyloid plaques but no memory problems,
and they're being followed and treated for four years to
see if they can. If that stops, even the slight
decline in memory that you can see on very detailed
memory testing. If that's the case, then that may show
that getting amyloid out early enough stops the development of

(01:09:30):
Alzheimer's disease. And that would be a really exciting development.

S2 (01:09:35):
Does the amyloid plaque develop into tau tangles, or is
that a repercussion of amyloid plaques being too many?

S11 (01:09:42):
It's a repercussion. You've got to get to a certain
amount of amyloid plaques in the brain, and then the
tau tangles start to appear. We're not sure of the
exact mechanism for this, but it's well documented. Documented. And
it's when the tau tangles start building up that your
memory and thinking really starts to decline.

S2 (01:10:00):
And they're picked up with scans.

S11 (01:10:02):
I assume at the moment it requires scans or lumbar
puncture fluid analysis. this, but there are blood tests that
are coming. In fact, one blood test that can effectively
rule out Alzheimer's disease was approved by the TGA just
a few weeks ago. Okay, one of the first countries
in the world to approve this test. And next year

(01:10:23):
we've got even better blood tests coming. Once it'll tell
you you have got Alzheimer's disease. Not just that you
don't have it, because.

S2 (01:10:30):
I guess sometimes not knowing or suspecting or thinking you
might have it is one thing, but I guess the
conclusive evidence is another thing. And yeah, it's got to
be a positive thing, albeit that the news itself isn't
that good.

S11 (01:10:42):
Yeah, great. So yes.

S2 (01:10:43):
What about the, uh, this drug? Uh, would you like
to pronounce it for me? Is it Lakemba.

S11 (01:10:49):
Lecanemab or Leqembi.

S2 (01:10:51):
Quimby?

S11 (01:10:52):
Lecanemab is its official chemical name. Leqembi is its trademark name.

S2 (01:10:58):
How safe is it?

S11 (01:10:59):
Good question. It does cause some little patchy areas of
brain swelling and some small little bleeds in the brain.
In some people that occurs in about 10%, but most
of those people don't notice it. It's only picked up
because MRI scans are done every month or so for
the first six months when this is likely to occur.

(01:11:22):
And if you stop the treatment, wait for that problem
to resolve. You can then recommence the treatment in about 2%
of people, though, those problems do become more severe and
cause symptoms. And in about 1 in 200 we think
it can lead to some permanent damage. So the treatment

(01:11:43):
is not entirely safe. It does come with a bit
of a risk, and you have to balance that when
making the decision as to whether to have this treatment.
About 10,000 people in Japan have had this treatment, and
probably about half that number in the United States, and
there hasn't been any significant concern raised with its use
out in what we call the real world about risks

(01:12:07):
compared to the trials. So it's probably one of the
reasons the TGA decided to change its position on this drug.

S2 (01:12:15):
They talked about going to your GP and getting a referral.
What about from there? I mean, you know, a specialist
that knows their stuff can kind of, um, you know,
work things out pretty quickly and say, well, yes, you
could be a candidate for or no, sorry, it's not
going to be for you.

S11 (01:12:32):
So specialists, either neurologists, geriatricians or old age psychiatrists know
a fair bit about dementia and Alzheimer's disease, and they
can tell you whether you're suitable for this treatment or not. Unfortunately,
there can be a bit of a waiting time, particularly
in the public service, to see a specialist, which is

(01:12:52):
another reason to get onto it sooner rather than later.

S2 (01:12:55):
Christopher, I know you've been working in this area for
quite some time. You talked about some of the things
we can do to, uh, I guess limit our chances.
Minimize our chances. What about the the crosswords, the, you know,
the work in the brain as well as the body?
Do you hold to that.

S11 (01:13:10):
A little bit? It's got to be done in conjunction.
Just doing one thing alone has been shown not to
have any great effect. That is part of the whole
program of doing what's healthy, living an active life. Then
brain stimulation is an important part of the mix.

S2 (01:13:27):
Well, apart from, like you said, giving us some really
good news in terms of blood tests that either here
or coming and also that the tangles thing it must mean.
I've obviously heard about amyloid plaque, but uh, the other
I hadn't. So I thank you for that. What about
in terms of people finding out more information? Where can
we go for that. And I guess often say it
on the program, Christopher. But a good relationship with your

(01:13:48):
GP is pretty important as well.

S11 (01:13:49):
Yeah. So start with your GP, but you really need
to see a specialist to get detailed information about this test.
One is one other very important thing I haven't mentioned. Unfortunately,
at the moment these drugs are not paid for by
the PBS.

S2 (01:14:05):
Okay.

S11 (01:14:06):
They are paid for by the governments in the United
States and Japan, but not in the UK or Europe
and not in Australia. So this unfortunately is an expensive treatment.
It's about 40 to $60,000 for a full course of
the drug. Oh, dear. There are other expenses on top
of that.

S2 (01:14:24):
Okay.

S11 (01:14:25):
So you won't have much change out of $80,000. Okay.
So it becomes a question of, um, yeah. Discussing it
with an expert, thinking about your situation, whether the benefits
are worth the expense and risk of having the treatment.

S2 (01:14:42):
And I'm assuming there's a lot of work going on
to kind of lobby the the relevant authorities to have
it put on the PBS.

S11 (01:14:48):
Yeah. And I said no to a similar drug. This
one might have a better shot, but we won't know
for a little while yet. I think it has been
submitted or about to be submitted to the PBS for
consideration of government funding. But that process does take a
bit of time.

S2 (01:15:06):
This has been fascinating. Thank you so much for speaking
to us, and congratulations on the work that you've done.
And thank you for sharing. Quite a bit of light
on that. We'll put some details regarding the drugs on
our show notes so people can work out the exact spelling, etc.
and as we say, consult their GP and then their
specialist and see where we go to from there. But
thank you again and we wish you well.

S11 (01:15:25):
Thank you very much.

S2 (01:15:26):
That's Professor Christopher Rowe there from the Austin Health Centre
talking about Alzheimer's and dementia and some things that may
be able to help and some really interesting information. We
thank the professor for his time today.

S12 (01:15:41):
On the first Australian network through your favorite podcast service
on 1190 7 a.m. in Adelaide. You're listening to leisurely.

S2 (01:15:50):
Really fantastic sounding opportunity coming up on October the 16th. Try.
Before you write, let's chat about it with the Wayne
Speers from Yarra Trams. Wayne is advisor for compliance and accessibility. Wayne,
great to meet you and thanks for your time.

S13 (01:16:04):
Thank you Peter, it's wonderful to be here and good
afternoon or good day to everyone listening in.

S2 (01:16:10):
And, uh, people who listen to Australia Radio and Victoria
would certainly know your voice. So good of you to
join us as well. I want to ask about the States,
a great sounding idea, how it all come about.

S13 (01:16:20):
So this is an event which is held every year. Uh,
there was a bit of a hiatus, actually, of course,
around the Covid situation, but, um, it's now back in
its third year, and it's an event where all of
the transport operators in Melbourne. So that's not only Yarra Trams,
but also Metro Trains, V Line and Kinetic Buses and

(01:16:41):
a couple of other operators as well, the um that
operates accessible taxis. So we all get together and have
a day for people to come along. And if people
are not confident using public transport or their, you know,
their lifestyle now makes it able for them to take
public transport because, you know, we all progress through life.

(01:17:04):
It's an opportunity to come down and give it a try.
I've been living in Melbourne now for a while, 13 years,
I think, and when I first moved to Melbourne, I
was petrified of trans because I'd never had any experience
with them before. And someone explained to me, it's just
like a bus, but it's on rails. Once I got,
once I got familiar with it, I was, you know,

(01:17:25):
I was, I was, um, you know, more confident taking them.
But even for folks who, you know, have moved to
Melbourne like myself, I did that time ago, it's good
just to come down and have a chat with people
and take that opportunity to, you know, practice getting on
and off a tram. Um, learn about the features, particularly
features for accessibility that might be on trams, trains, in

(01:17:46):
the buses. You know, kinetic will have a bus there
so people can, um, experience what it's like getting on
and off the tram. Sorry. Ooh. On and off the
bus with one of the ramps that they operate. So
it's a good place for people to do that. And
there's no time constraints except for the fact that, you know,
we're going to start to finish time. But it's not
as if people are doing it on a bus or

(01:18:09):
a train or a tram that's in service. They've got
that time to do that comfortably. We've also got our
partners with Traveler's Aid, their traveler's aid. If people aren't
familiar with Travelers Aid, they operate out of a couple
of places in Melbourne. So Flinders Street station and Southern
Cross station, they've got facilities there for people to, you know,
they might need to, you know, charge up their mobility

(01:18:31):
aid or there's changing places, facilities there for folks if
they need it. And also just if they need assistance
with anything, um, getting around mobility, especially at Southern Cross.
It's a big space. They operate a buggy to get
people to and from train platforms and stuff. So travellers
are partnered with um with this event as well. And
their services are also available for people doing about as well.

S2 (01:18:53):
Yeah. Fantastic. Now, if the people of any ability or
for all disabilities, not just people who are blind or
have low vision, correct.

S13 (01:18:59):
Anyone, anyone can come along. So, um, if people, uh,
have a disability and that's including hidden disabilities as well.
So not just people that might have, you know, low vision,
use a guide dog or go blind with a cane,
so on, um, people with hidden disabilities. And that could
be that can be a really affirming opportunity for them because, again,
that space and the opportunity just to to take time

(01:19:22):
to get to be familiar with, you know, the layout
of a of a train or a tram and so on.
It's a really good space for them to do that.
We actually at the event, this is really exciting. At
the event, we've got a metro train at the platform
and a V line train at a, at another platform,
so people can just get on and get off the
train as they want to. And what we do at

(01:19:44):
Yarra Trams because, uh, because there's no tram platform in
the train station, what we actually are you doing? And
it was really popular last year. We're actually taking people
on little, uh, escorted tram trips. So people can register
when they register at the event. Um, and they check
in on the day. It's like, okay, we've got some tram.
Tram journeys. Um, only about 2 or 3 stops. Get

(01:20:06):
off and get another tram back. Um, just to give
people that experience. And it's, um, it's a very exciting, uh,
way to get to learn about the trams, because you
also get to know what the trams, you know, sounds like,
how it feels when it's moving. And, um, and you
can learn about the tram stop as well.

S2 (01:20:24):
What about in terms of, uh, the people that'll be there?
Are they trained in this area as well to kind
of work with people with disabilities?

S13 (01:20:30):
So all of the staff that are at the event
work in public transport, as you know, the staff of
Yarra Trams, Metro trains and so on. So they're all
trained to understand, you know, what barriers there might be
for people that, um, travel by public transport, but also
what innovations and what initiatives are in place to help
remove those barriers? One of those barriers that people can

(01:20:54):
often have, especially with a hidden disability, is, um, you know,
being able to identify that they've, that they have a
hidden disability. And so all of the public transport operators
are members of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower program. So we've
got um, we've got, uh, all of our, all of
our staff are trained to recognize the sunflower and understand
what it means, but also then we know what support

(01:21:16):
people might need if they have identified and they need
some assistance. But everyone at the event who's working there, um,
from the transport operators are trained in, um, you know, understanding,
as I mentioned, you know, some of those barriers that
people can face and how we can overcome those barriers. Um,
with some of those initiatives that we've got in place.

S2 (01:21:35):
When accessibility is really important. Often it can be, you know,
financial accessibility, that is, or financial exclusion because you can't
afford to do things. So what's the situation as far
as public transport in Melbourne goes. There's quite a bit
of it, either very low cost or indeed free.

S13 (01:21:50):
So Public Transport or Transport Victoria, they have got a
number of, I guess, um, myki cards uh, available for folks,
including travel passes. So, um, there will be people available
from Transport Victoria who can talk about these, um, opportunities
for folks if, uh, you know, they can qualify for

(01:22:11):
a travel pass, which, um, can be free, uh, or
certainly concession as well, if people, um, are, uh, eligible
for concession passes and so on. In Melbourne, in the CBD,
we've got the free tram, free tram pass, the free
tram zone. So that's, um, um, you know, unlimited travel
within the free tram zone around the CBD. So folks

(01:22:33):
do come into the city and they want to get
on a tram to go up to the Queen Victoria
market and then duck back down to um, Bourke Street Mall,
have some lunch somewhere, and then head up to Parliament
to check out the sites. They can do all of
that in the free trade zone at no cost. Yeah
that's right. We've got those initiatives here. But yeah, certainly

(01:22:54):
the Transport Victoria folks will be available at the trial
before we arrive as well to talk about, um, you know,
those concession opportunities for fares and tickets and so on.

S2 (01:23:03):
Well, often you can have something there and not be
aware of it for whatever reason until it gets out
to you. You don't know until someone points it out.
So it's a great thing. So tell us about Thursday
the 16th. Uh, what sort of time does it get underway?
And what do we need to do to kind of
take part in the day?

S13 (01:23:19):
You bet. So it's Thursday, the 16th. It starts at
1030 in the morning, and it's at Southern Cross railway station.
We will have some banners and signs so people can
identify the area that we're going to be located to
register and let us know that you're here. And the
event finishes at 2 p.m.. So it's a good 3.5
hours to register. And the reason we want people to

(01:23:42):
register is registers so that we we know you're coming
and also be if you do have any, um, any requirements.
Certainly if you wanted to, uh, let us know, you might, um,
you know, need some assistance. We can let Travelers Aid
know in advance that, um, you're popping in, but also
just to register, as I said, to let us know
that you're you're definitely going to be coming, which is

(01:24:02):
a really good thing.

S2 (01:24:03):
You talked about not being in Melbourne a long time.
I mean, Melbourne is pretty famous for its tram. So
if you kind of, uh, utilize them to the best
of your ability, that's got to be a good thing
as well.

S13 (01:24:12):
You know what? It's an easy way to zip across town. Um,
you know, people that work in the city, if you
want to duck up to Bourke Street Mall because you
need to buy a pair of shoes, you can just
hop on the tram. Um, but even out to the suburbs,
you know, um, and not that far, you know, if
people footy seasons finished now, but, um, people that want
to go to the footy, we've got, um, you know,
additional tram services that take people to those sorts of

(01:24:34):
events and for, you know, special events like the Australian Open,
Grand Prix, you know, we've got lots of train services there,
but just also getting around day to day. You know,
it's a really convenient, reliable and, you know, it's a
great way to get around Melbourne and also is, I think,
you know, services that are operated by our partners at
Kinetic Metro. And, you know, it's making, you know, participation

(01:24:59):
and um, and in everything that people do from day
to day easier. And you don't have to rely on
a car. Yeah.

S2 (01:25:06):
It's a great.

S13 (01:25:06):
Thing. Yeah. There was one thing about the registration process
with registering. We do have a couple of ways that
people can do that. There's an Eventbrite web page which
we've set up for people to register, and it's a
bit of a mouthful, but I'll I'll let everyone know
what it is. It's try before you ride Melbourne. 2025

(01:25:28):
so try before you buy. Melbourne. 2025. Dot Eventbrite and
bright is spelled b r I t e.com or there's
actually going to be a link on the Vision Australia
web page that will take you to that same registration.

S2 (01:25:45):
All right. And what makes up about the show on
our show notes as well. Wayne. So we'll make sure
that link goes on the show notes as well. So
people have got all sorts of ways of accessing it. Thanks. Good.
Good on everyone for the initiative. It's got to be
a good thing when more people can be included in
the taking part in the day to day life and
in particular this instance, public transport. We wish you well

(01:26:07):
and thanks for spending some time with us.

S13 (01:26:09):
And I certainly look forward to meeting everyone at, uh,
at the event on the 16th.

S2 (01:26:14):
By the way, I heard you on the radio. That's
why I'm here.

S13 (01:26:18):
That's why I'm here.

S2 (01:26:20):
That's the password, anyway.

S13 (01:26:22):
Thanks, Peter. Cheers.

S2 (01:26:23):
So when you say a bit of a character study
sounds like a well worthwhile day to get along. October
the 16th. We'll put those details up with our show notes.
A bit of a PS two Nat Cox interview. Mark Butler,
the federal Minister, has made news aware of the fact
that $4.4 million will be put up by the federal

(01:26:43):
government to help the sale of Bedford. It's obviously a
very worrying time. We're obviously very much a thinking of
a staff and anyone that is associated with Bedford at
this time. And that did say and Peter Malinauskas, the Premier,
had said that, you know, that is such a high
priority for them to keep the organization going. So I
take a lot of solace from that. So we'll see

(01:27:04):
what this other news regarding a sale leads to. But
I'm pretty confident that Bedford will be here in all
many years time. Mark Butler said another 80. Let's hope
that's the case. We'll try and find out more information
in the next few weeks. It's a moving feast, as
they like to say, but I think Nat Cook's reassuring
words should put hopefully, minds at ease. Now, a couple

(01:27:27):
of quotes before we go. Judy has sent one through.
Judy sends this quote through from Serena Williams, the champion
tennis player. Serena says, I love who I am, and
I encourage everyone to do whatever possible to feel the
same way. So thanks to Judy for sending that through.
And one being sent through from Robert, who I think

(01:27:48):
is the father of a very famous actor or actress
actor in America. This quote is from Picasso. Learn the
rules like a pro so you can break them like
an artist. So thanks very much, Robert for your quotes
and birthdays. Before we go. Happy birthday to Carly. Towns
does some wonderful work, particularly in Queensland and those northern

(01:28:11):
states in the area of advocacy, helping people out. Also,
happy birthday to Tegan Henderson. You may have heard us
speak to Tegan over the years doing wonderful work, particularly
in the area of fund raising for childhood dementia. So Tegan,
a very big happy birthday to you. Happy birthday also
to David Segal from the Paralympic Committee or Paralympic Australia's

(01:28:31):
they're now called helps us always with interviews. Happy birthday
to you, David, and speak about Paralympics. Meg Lemon, one
of our fabulous cyclists is also having a birthday. Happy
birthday to you. That's it for the program. Sam Rickard,
thanks so much for your help. Pam Green, thanks much yours.
Huge thanks also to James and Cath for your support.
Thank you. It's very, very much appreciated. Reminding you that

(01:28:55):
listening is available wherever you get your favorite podcast. If
you like the show, please tell a friend, we'd love
you to do that. We'd also love you to stay
tuned because coming up very soon is Vicky Cousins with
Australian Geographic. Be kind yourselves, be thoughtful and look out
for others all being well. Leslie back at the same

(01:29:15):
time next week on Vision Australia Radio and the Reading
Radio Network. This is leisurely.

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