30 Aug 2025

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:25):
It's just gone 5:00 and the Royal Adelaide Show hitting Adelaide.
Thank you for rolling up and tuning into leisure link
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(00:48):
our friends. Listening through 103.9, Hope FM and Esperance in
Western Australia. Hello to you and hello and thank you
to the wonderful support from Disability Media Australia. You can
find the link there plus much more great information go
to Powered Media. Peter Greco saying thank you so much

(01:08):
for making time to tune in. Really appreciate you doing that.
This program coming to you from Ghana and come to
you very shortly. We'll speak to Minister Emily Burke, Minister
for recreation, Sport and Autism in South Australia. Some really
good news for our elite athletes, for our Paralympians and
Commonwealth Games athletes will find out about that shortly. Rachael

(01:30):
Leahcar will join us. What a singer. What a person.
Rachael will be performing at the Blind Australian of the
Year Awards coming up in October. You can nominate someone
very now. We can also catch up with Briony Benjamin
who's going to talk about Blood Cancer Awareness Month. And
Briony will share her very personal story of how she

(01:50):
said hopefully overcoming blood cancer. So look forward to catch
up with Briony. Alison Davies will join us from Alison Davies.
Com.au talking about the benefits of singing it can help
your health. We'll also catch up with Maureen O'Reilly from
the Vision Australia library. If you'd like to write, Maureen
has got some news for you. Doctor Libby Weaver will

(02:12):
also join us to talk about some food myths and
better choices we can make to be healthier and happier,
and eat better and help the planet as well. So
lots of good news from Doctor Libby. We'll have yoga
from Reva Bryce and Adjunct Professor Denise Wood from USC
will join us. All the latest news in technology. If
you want a new phone, if you want a new watch,

(02:35):
Denise might have some news. Well, it's been a little
while since we caught up with the original and the
galaxy's first minister for autism here in South Australia. Emily Bourke.
And we've also got a few extra hats now and
will be glad to catch up. Thanks for your time.

S2 (02:53):
Thanks for having me, Peter.

S1 (02:54):
Yeah, well, you have got a couple of extra hats. Recreation,
sport and racing. And when it comes to sport recently
you made a very good announcement regarding Olympians and Paralympians.
As far as some funding goes for the future.

S2 (03:07):
Yeah, there's a number of programs that we've been doing. But, um,
the one in particular you're talking about is the the
High Performance Athletes program. So where we, you know, trying
to identify those, uh, next, uh, people that will be
off to the Paralympics or the Olympics, uh, and give
them that bit of extra support to help them get there,
because we don't want barriers getting in the way of,

(03:28):
you know, finding those future people that can represent not
only our state, but our country on a world stage.
So we have 69 elite athletes, um, that receive funding
to help support them. And, you know, um, there was, uh,
Caitlyn who received funding to be a basketball over the Paralympics,
and that helped her, you know, better reach her dreams,

(03:48):
I guess. So just taking away those barriers that just, uh,
come down to costs, whether it's training, whether it's new equipment, um,
and just helps our team get there. But it's not
just this program. It's, you know, as a state, we've
been the first to really lead the way in this area.
So we're the first state to be able to provide
funding to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Paralympic Team appeal.

(04:11):
And what we did is we provided $1 million, but
we made sure that that commitment was split 5050 between
the Olympic team and the Paralympic team. That has not
happened before. And that's something I think that sets a
really good example of, you know, everyone who gets this
level is an elite athlete and need to be backed equally.
So that's what we have done as a government for

(04:31):
the first time, which is something we're really proud of,
but also our state sport institute, as it's often usually
referred to. We have also the first date. So, um,
the federal government put up funding a little while ago
and South Australia jumped onto it, and we grabbed that
funding and decided it would be the first state to

(04:52):
establish a power unit at our state sport institute. And
now other states are looking to us to say, wow,
that's fantastic. How did you go about doing this? And
we haven't just stopped there. We've created that program, but
then we've created this other program called the Parrot Launchpad,
which is identifying 13 people who may never have thought
that they would go on to play sport. And now,

(05:14):
given that opportunity to, you know, not only play sport,
but again represent our state and our country at the Paralympics.
So these 13 people have been identified, they've come along
to a workshop and someone has said, you know, you'd
be great at rowing. And now at 35, Caitlyn, for example, is,

(05:35):
you know, she had a, um, below the knee amputee
amputation of her leg and never thought she'd be playing sport.
And now, at 35, could be going on to represent
their country because of this fantastic program. So it's really
helped in so many different ways for her as an
individual level. But, you know, now that she gets to
go on and potentially represent our state and country, that's

(05:58):
an incredible outcome from this program.

S1 (06:00):
I saw a great quote from her where she said,
you know, most athletes are retiring at this age. I'm
just starting out, which is pretty cool, which is well done.

S2 (06:07):
100%.

S1 (06:07):
Emily, you made a great point regarding the equal funding
for the Olympic and Paralympic appeal because, of course, in
recent times, Olympic gold medalists have received money and last
time Paralympic gold medals were also given the same amount
of money. In fact, for silver and bronze as well, which,
I mean, you kind of think, well, of course it
should be the case, but it hasn't always been so.

S2 (06:27):
That's right. And I think the Commonwealth Games is, you know,
have always enjoyed it for the, the, the reason that
the Power and Commonwealth Games athletes are competing at the
same time. So it's not one event and then the next.
And you know, it's it enables that to be elevated
because you're not, you know, getting fatigued from watching the
first round of the Commonwealth Games and having to watch

(06:48):
the next round. It's all at the same time. And
it really is a journey for so many people to
become an athlete. And I think, you know, the adversity
that is put behind the story of someone that's in
the Paralympics is, you know, really inspirational for so many
to be able to know that anything can be achieved
and people have to work hard to get there, but

(07:08):
you can achieve it. So these stories are incredible stories
and incredible people, but they also have a very good
team around them. And I'm really proud that Sassy and
South Australia have also taken a lead role in being
a part of that team. That gets people to a
level they never thought they would be able to get to.

S1 (07:25):
Yeah, we spoke to Jack swagger late last year when
that unit was launched, since people like Kerry Faulkner at
the Institute do such a tremendous job that, you know,
there are people that are often behind the scenes or
certainly not behind the scenes, because he was very much
front and centre with the Olympic or Paralympic gold medal. But,
you know, people behind the scenes that we don't often
hear much about that do tremendous amount of work.

S2 (07:45):
It's very easy to tell that Jade is definitely rowing still. And,
you know, he's achieved so much for our country at
the Paralympics. But also, I mean, we shake his hand,
you know, he works hard because he's got his, um,
rowing hands, the calluses there. And I think it should
be really proud of him, that that's his identity. Three
years he has achieved fantastic things through sport, not only

(08:08):
for himself, but also to inspire many other people, particularly
through the programmes he's helping now to coordinate.

S1 (08:14):
And you must have the magic touch, Emily, because I
know also in recent times you've announced some funding for clubs,
sporting clubs to get more women involved and better supported
as far as sport goes.

S2 (08:24):
Yeah. So we have the power of her grant that's
been going out now for a couple of years.

S1 (08:30):
And that came before your time. I thought I was
giving you all the credit.

S2 (08:33):
Yes. That's before my time. I'm not going to take
credit for something I haven't done. But no. So that
is that is a great program. And it's really, I guess,
taking down barriers as well. I before starting in this role,
I probably didn't appreciate how different, uh, the change room
facilities could be for different codes. I've played hockey my
whole life, so we've always had facilities that are there

(08:57):
to support both men and women. But when you go
into footage, change rooms, um, you can see that it
wouldn't be a very welcoming place for women because they
were never designed to have women in them. So we
establish a fund, $18 million over a number of years
to be able to provide funding to our clubs to
make them more inclusive for women. So it's called the

(09:17):
power of her. And we've seen remarkable changes come about
because that motivation was given. If you make your club
more inclusive for women, there's funding available. So that's been
a great game changer for a lot of people.

S1 (09:29):
Fantastic. Now we're putting your hat regarding, uh, people with
autism on, uh, tell us about the sensory bus. I
guess it's kind of part of the whole inclusion thing.
Part of the thing about everyone having access to, uh, events, etc..

S2 (09:42):
Yeah. Well, it's it's one of my favorite pet projects
that we've been working on for a while now. So
we went to early on in my role when, um,
it was a me and a couple of others that
were in the portfolio space. We It pulled together a
sensory room at the, um, Christmas carols. And, you know,

(10:03):
it was space donated by the the Festival center. And, um,
everyone was the goodwill of people coming together to make
it happen. And it was far from perfect. And I
was talking to a young family, um, Annie and Nathan
with their son Eli, who's autistic. And, um, you know,
for them to get to that sensory room, they had
to walk through the festival Center, find a way through

(10:26):
crowds of people to get to it. And if you
weren't overwhelmed before you got there, you probably would have
been overwhelmed by the time you got there. So they said,
what you need is a buff to be able to
pull up to events. So it's kind of closer to
the event. I thought, what a great idea. And um,
as a government, we have plenty of buses. And, um,
we had one of our retired metro buses, uh, provided

(10:50):
to us through Torrance Transit. And then we've now been
able to have a design done with consultation from the
autistic community about what is needed in that space, and
we are now going to be able to provide an
incredible sensory area that is a bath that is not
going to be looking like any other Metro bus you've
ever seen before, and will be wrapped in artwork that's

(11:12):
also provided by the autistic community.

S1 (11:14):
Okay.

S2 (11:15):
It'll be a piece of artwork from another autistic person
and a piece of artwork from an autistic child. And, um,
we know that this is going to be a game changer.
It will come to about 15 government events. And then
outside of that, the organisation that won the tender, uh,
autism SA, that will be used at other events around

(11:38):
the state. So it's really the government's investing in this
big piece of infrastructure. So before this, you know at
the Adelaide 500 for example, we would have to get
a truck, put on a pod on the back of
the truck, take it to the Adelaide 500, hire a crane,
put But the pudding with the crane. Hopefully it's in
the right spot, so we have to move it again.

(11:59):
So there's a lot of expense and it was far
from perfect. So now we've decided to do this bus. Um,
people will know what to expect when they get there
because it's something they've seen before. And um, that helped
that helped design it as well. So we, we know
that so many people go to an event, and the
thought of getting inside that event and not knowing there's

(12:19):
a space available is what stops them from going to it. So,
you know, people might not necessarily use it when they're there,
but they know it's available if they need it. And
that's the most important thing.

S1 (12:30):
So the bus started running yet?

S2 (12:31):
No, the competition has just closed for the artwork. And
we're hoping in the next couple of months it will
be out on our roads heading to an event very soon. Um,
I think, um, the Adelaide 500 might be touted as
the first one, but we'll have to see as we
progress those works. But it's looking fantastic.

S1 (12:52):
We're doing a program like this, Emily, I know you know,
more recent years, more and more organization, more and more
events have got the relaxed, uh, settings or the relaxed showings,
which is obviously a great recognition of people with autism
and maybe their needs, but also just making it more
inclusive and encouraging people to come along with their families.

S2 (13:10):
Absolutely. And we've seen this at the Adelaide Oval as well,
where we do a sensory space there. Every time I
pop in just to see how it's going, um, there's
always someone in there and it's been beautifully designed. So
there is a, you know, an interactive space, but a quiet,
quiet room as well within the sensory space. So you can, um,

(13:31):
you know, sit behind a couch and pull a curtain
across if you want, so you can have that extra
time to just have for yourself. And it I don't
know how many times I've heard from people that go
there is it just is so nice to know it's available.
I might use it, but I might not. But if
I do, I know it's there. So is this giving

(13:51):
choice to people? And I think that's really, really important. Um,
because we heard so many people would buy tickets to events.
It's the line and just go, I can't do this.

S1 (14:01):
Yeah.

S2 (14:02):
No, there's no space.

S1 (14:02):
They go.

S2 (14:03):
On the.

S1 (14:03):
Other side. They go home.

S2 (14:04):
Yeah, we're going home.

S1 (14:05):
Yeah. Yeah.

S2 (14:06):
And that stops people from going out. And we don't.
We don't want people not connecting with the communities that
they want to connect with. So, you know, we've taken
on the feedback from the community is that we need
to change the environment around us because that's what so
many find is is disabling is the environment. And so
we're trying our best to come up with these new
initiatives to try and change that environment.

S1 (14:27):
And we'll get you back to talk about the Thriving
kids announcement last week, you know, in the near future.
But just quickly, have you had much response to that?
Because I find that whenever there's talk about or the
NDIS is changing or we're going to make some changes,
there's going to be cutbacks or we're having thriving kids
that raise a great deal of alarm amongst people and
sometimes unnecessarily so.

S2 (14:48):
Yeah. So the federal government announced this last week. Minister
Butler is the new Minister for the NDIS and announced
that I think it was on Thursday last week. And,
you know, this has been spoken about now for quite
a number of years about foundational supports and what they
could look like. And we found out during that speech
that they're going to be referring to that as driving kids.

(15:10):
And I appreciate, you know, many people in the community
are you know, they're worried about what that means. Um,
change is never easy. And just like them, we're looking
for that information as well. And I've spoken with Minister Butler, uh,
to say, you know, we're keen to find out more
details about what this will look like. And there's an
opportunity here. And I encourage people to be a part

(15:31):
of the conversation. So Minister Butler has said that there'll
be a consultation and there'll be an advisory group pulled together,
and that consultation will happen over the next year. It's
really easy. You know, NDIS has helped so many people
and that's a good thing. And we know it hasn't
been perfect. And there's an opportunity here to do something differently.

(15:53):
I know people feel like this is sort of, you know,
being a bit surprised at the announcement, but I would
hate for people to miss out on being a part
of the conversation because they're worried about what that change
might look like. It's best to be a part of
the conversation so that they can make sure that is
the right outcome at the end of that year consultation.
So that's what I'm hoping to be able to achieve,
is you continue to provide that feedback to the federal

(16:15):
government and say, this is what the community is calling for,
and let's be a part of that conversation.

S1 (16:20):
I'm sure we'll speak about more in the future. Emily.
I've gone way over. Thank you for being generous for
the time. We'll speak again soon.

S2 (16:25):
No. No problem. Thank you.

S1 (16:27):
It's, uh, Emily Bourke, who's the Minister for recreation, sport,
racing and also autism in South Australia, with some pretty
good news all round. Well, the Blind Australian of the
year awards have been opened. nominations have been opened, and

(16:48):
one of the great features of the event will be
Rachael Leahcar. Performing at the gala night was on the line. Rachael,
great to catch up again.

S3 (16:56):
Yeah, so good to talk to you again, Peter. It's
been such.

S1 (16:58):
A nice guy. It's been a long time and a
fair bit has been happening in your personal life.

S3 (17:03):
Ah, yeah. You know what? Graduating from a degree, getting married,
having a baby.

S1 (17:09):
Nothing much. Been happening. All pretty quiet.

S3 (17:11):
Ah, yeah. Pretty boring.

S1 (17:12):
So, how's it all going? On a serious note. How
are you fitting everything in?

S3 (17:17):
Yeah, I'm I don't know. It's a really good stage
of life at the moment. I'm absolutely loving it. Being
a mum has been the absolute most rewarding thing. Lots
of challenges to deal with. But he's such a beautiful
little guy and my hubby's really supportive. So I'm very
lucky and in a really good place at the moment.

S1 (17:34):
Well, that's good to hear. Of course. So you said
you'd graduated with a degree and also you're doing some
work for BCA. So, um, as I say, very much
a full dance card.

S3 (17:43):
That's right. Yeah. I'm working full time for BCA and
focusing on their eye to the future project, which has
been amazing. I've always had a bit of a passion
for employment, so if I can help other people with
vision impairment in their employment journey, then it's just an
extra level of amazing. And yeah, also doing the singing
and performing and speaking and all sorts of other things

(18:04):
on the side. So very busy at the moment.

S1 (18:06):
Yeah. Just before coming away you're on the Gold Coast,
I guess, you know, promoting and raising awareness about disability
and accessibility.

S3 (18:14):
Yeah. So yeah, last week I was at the Actor
National conference, which is all about community transport, and I
met a lot of different providers because I didn't actually
know too much about community transport specifically. I know the
experiences I've had with public transport and any other forms
of transport. And yeah, I just shared a bit of
my story there with, um, my experiences, the good, the bad,

(18:38):
the ugly, everything in between. And there were so many
amazing people there that were just really passionate and caring,
kind individuals running some great organizations there. So I was
very happy to to meet them all.

S1 (18:50):
Well, if that can be empathetic and make everything a
little bit more accessible, a bit more user friendly, that's
got to be good for everyone.

S3 (18:57):
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. That's that's what I found as well.
I'm definitely looking into more community transport options now.

S1 (19:04):
And of course, not just for people who are blind
or have low vision, but people with other disabilities, people
who might be getting on in age. I mean, you know, uh,
people who might have kids in prams. I mean, everyone
kind of benefits.

S3 (19:15):
Yeah. That's it. And I think they're kind of focusing
on that more door to door service now. You know,
if you get in a taxi or a bus or whatever,
you got to catch it from a certain place. But yeah,
if you get that community transport and they help you
to the appointment and all that, it's just, uh, yeah. Um,
makes things a lot easier for everyone.

S1 (19:35):
Yeah. Rachel, as I mentioned, uh, nominations for the Blind
Australian of the year. Uh, you were there last year
at the at the gala night?

S3 (19:41):
Right. I was, yes, and it was an electric atmosphere,
I have to say. It was. Yeah. It's one of
my favorite events of the year. Just recognizing all the
amazing contributions that blind and visually impaired people make to
the community. And, um, I don't know, particularly those young
people that are making waves and getting out there and
kicking goals. And it's just it's just I don't want

(20:03):
to use the word inspiring because I know a lot
of people hate that word, but it's inspiring for me
personally as a person with a vision impairment to and,
you know, it's heartwarming as well to see that happening
and creating a more inclusive community, but also raising the standards,
I suppose, for the expectations of people with vision impairment,
because I don't know, the wider community is is a

(20:24):
lot like pitying and oh, you poor thing. But it
just goes to show what you can do when you
put your mind to it.

S1 (20:31):
Now, you were there last year, as was Reggie, who
many people would know from Big Brother and I'm a
Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. And the things that
people like you do when you go on television, you
kind of raise the awareness, but also the abilities of
a person with a disability. I mean, there's Rachel. She's
a singer, you know, by the way. She's visually impaired,
but she's a singer first and foremost. And I think

(20:52):
that's a really powerful message to be getting out there.

S3 (20:55):
Yeah, absolutely. There are so many things in life to
focus on. Why would you just focus on one thing?
And everyone has their obstacles. I think, um, being visually
impaired is an obvious obstacle for me because society wasn't
built for me, um, and people with vision impairment. But
we make do and, and there's so many different aspects

(21:15):
of life to celebrate. So yeah, we always find ways
to adapt to our situations. We're very good at adapting
as humans, and I believe that we can all adapt
if we all are supported properly.

S1 (21:27):
Okay, it's funny you say that. I was talking to
someone just the other day, and they were talking about
how difficult it is for people who have disabilities to
get employment. They'll say, well, really, it should be a
no brainer in a sense, because people who have disabilities
are very good at troubleshooting, working out ways around things
just in their everyday lives. So why couldn't that be
transposed into a work environment?

S3 (21:48):
Oh, absolutely. Peter, you definitely hit the nail on the
head there. We have to be more creative with our
everyday lives and problem solve and yeah, use technology as well.
So all those different ways that we adapt in life
is definitely applicable to any job. Um, and the resilience
as well. And self-reflection. There's so many different skills that

(22:10):
people with disabilities have that no one else does that
are so beneficial to any workplace. Really.

S1 (22:16):
Well, what about your, um, sort of, uh, emphasis or
your focus on music compared to ten, 12, 15 years ago?
Has that changed much over the years and particularly, say,
appearing at the gala night for Australian of the year,
or will your performance be any different than it was? Well,
I suppose it's going to be different in a way,
but how different?

S3 (22:34):
Yeah, well, I'll do different songs, but I've always been
a very emotive performer, so that definitely won't change. The
songs will be different, but um, yeah, I'll talk about
it with the team and see what kind of vibe
they want to go for. Usually I like to start
with a more relaxed set at the beginning of the night.
You know, people are less rowdy, but towards the end
of the night, maybe I'll do a few more sing

(22:56):
along songs and that sort of thing. So yeah, I'll
read the room and see what happens.

S1 (23:01):
It's a great way to put it, read the room.
And I guess in a sense, even though you might
not be able to necessarily see the crowd, you can
kind of, uh, sense their energy and and sense what what, uh,
what they're thinking, what they're feeling.

S3 (23:13):
Absolutely. You can definitely feel that.

S1 (23:15):
What about as far as, um, anything new coming up
in terms of CDs, etc. or releases, I guess. You see,
she's I'm showing my age and I know.

S3 (23:24):
Yeah, I wish there was CDs still because I have
about a thousand of them sitting at my mum's house, um,
of my Christmas one. But yeah, I am writing new
music at the moment and I've had a goal of
releasing a lullaby album for ages.

S1 (23:40):
Oh, what a great idea.

S3 (23:42):
So you heard it here first. Probably going to be
my next little project, but yeah, we'll see when that happens.

S1 (23:49):
Well, you know, often we talk about, you know, lived
experience of disability, lived experience of this, lived experience of that.
You're having lived experience of seeing lullabies, aren't you?

S3 (23:58):
Oh, yeah. I might as well just hit record when
I'm playing Eli asleep, but. Yeah.

S1 (24:03):
Oh that's fantastic. Hey, Rachel, great to catch up now. Well,
we'll put details about nominating for the Blind Australian of
the year up on our show notes. So we'll do that.
And of course, the great thing is I'm sure you'll
be aware of this, Rachel. There's now three categories. Uh,
there's the Australian of the year, there's the young Australian
of the year, and of course, the employee of choice,
which we've kind of touched on how important that is.

(24:23):
So we're three kind of chances.

S3 (24:26):
Yeah. Um, I'm so looking forward. I really want to
learn more about all the people that have been nominated
as well, just because I love hearing all these stories
about what people are doing in the community, and I
hope they can share a few of the the runners
up as well as the winners. But yeah, we'll see
what happens. Who wins? Um, but yeah, whoever wins it

(24:46):
doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, if
you're getting out there and doing things in the community,
then that's absolutely fantastic. And I'm right there behind you.

S1 (24:55):
Well, link Fishers do a great job supporting it. And
we learnt the other day on the programme through Karen Negroni,
the emcee on the night that also the Queensland Government
has come on board with some support, which is a
great thing that the Queensland Government has also got on board. So,
you know, that kind of gives a bit more impetus
as well.

S3 (25:11):
Yeah, it is great to get that recognition, um, for sure.

S1 (25:15):
Right. We'll put the details up on our show. It's
great to catch up. I know you've got plenty on.
So thank you for making a bit of time this. Enjoy.
October the 11th. We'll also put details as to how
they can book and come along to the evening on, uh,
in Queensland on the 11th of October. Have fun. And, uh,
I hope it's not too long before we speak next time.

S3 (25:32):
Yes, we'll have to catch up again for an online
coffee at some point.

S1 (25:36):
Alright, great to catch up, Rachel.

S3 (25:38):
Thanks, Peter.

S1 (25:39):
Rachael Leahcar there. The wonderful Rachael Leahcar. I've been doing
great things for a long time, and you heard it first.
And maybe a lullaby album coming up very soon, but
Rachel is now the performer at the gala night for
the Blind Australian of the year. All those details up
with our show.

S4 (25:54):
It's just a song. It's your song.

S5 (25:57):
Hi, I'm Nathan Pelissier, Paralympic table tennis player, and you're
listening to leisure link with Peter Greco on the Vision
Australia radio network.

S1 (26:07):
It's a really important month, September, for blood cancer awareness.
Let's chat about it with Bryony Benjamin, who's on the line,
and her son Aiden is hovering around as well. Bryony
lovely to meet you. Thank you for your time.

S6 (26:20):
Thanks, Peter. Thanks for having me on. Yes, I'm feeding
as we speak, so hopefully my little companion will be
nice and quiet for his first radio interview, but I
can't promise.

S1 (26:30):
Well, just remember, he launched his career.

S6 (26:33):
Exactly. It all started today.

S1 (26:36):
Hey, Brian, you found in wonderful health and wonderful spirit.
But I guess there was a time when, um, you know,
things weren't quite as good for you in terms of
your health.

S6 (26:44):
Yeah, exactly. Peter, uh, I, you know, basically had a
about a 12 to 18 month period of just feeling
really awful. I was working in media at the time
in Sydney, and, and I just kept going to the
doctor over and over again. And they were just saying, oh,
you're just stressed. It must be stress. But it turns
out it was not stress. After my parents insisted I
go and see a hematologist to look at my bloods

(27:07):
closer and after, you know, weeks of testing, I got
the result. Um, the shocking news at 31 that I
had stage four blood cancer. Yes, I know, and he's
he's upset to hear that. So it was, um. Yeah,
a huge shock to the system when you sort of
feel like you're at the prime of your life and
everything's going really well to be told that, in fact,

(27:27):
life had to stop. Go on. pause. I moved home
to Queensland to be, um, you know, my, my family
home with my parents and started a pretty aggressive course
of chemotherapy, uh, two weeks later. So it was a whirlwind.

S1 (27:40):
Yeah. Reading a bit about you, understandably, you were scared.
I guess it's not knowing what's ahead. That's the scary part.

S6 (27:47):
Well, I think the C word is always a scary word, right? And, um,
you know, the the thing about a blood cancer as well,
it's actually, you know, becoming one of the, uh, largest
cancers in terms of diagnosis in the country. But the
vast majority of Australians still don't know much about it
and what the symptoms are. So, you know, for me,
I had this just persistent cough that wouldn't go away.

(28:09):
But easy to write that off to something else. Right?
I had I had itchy skin. I just fatigue always
just felt like I was a bit sick and rundown.
And I was having night sweats on and off at night.
So they were the really big things. But other than that,
not in my wildest dreams did I think I had
cancer or a blood cancer. So yeah, it was a
huge shock. That day I got diagnosed and yeah, the

(28:30):
unknown is so scary. Um, as you embark on it, uh,
you just it's not something that you ever thought would
be a part of your life.

S1 (28:37):
Age 31. So, as you say, you think you're in
the prime of your life. But blood cancer, in a sense,
tends to discriminate in a sense. And, uh, you know,
quite common against younger people in terms of cancers.

S6 (28:48):
Yeah. It really like the Hodgkin's lymphoma that I had
is the most common cancer in young people. Um, and
yet despite that, I think there is still a real
health bias when you, you know, go and see your
GP because, you know, I looked well, I was I
was sort of vibrant, I was playing sport, I had
a big job. And so I think it's just, you know,

(29:08):
it's the last thing anyone is sort of thinking of. So,
you know, my biggest message to everyone now I say
you're the only one that knows your body and knows
what it feels like. And you really if you really
feel that it's not well, you've got to keep digging
until you get answers and not just, you know, roll
along with, oh, well, this I you know, I think
I'd gotten to the point where I thought maybe this

(29:30):
is just what being an adult feels like. You just
feel awful all the time. Which was a pretty depressing thought, really.

S1 (29:35):
Now you kind of did something very practical and positive
about it as well. Did you kind of set up
a kind of a some videos and kind of chronicling
how you were going and, and your treatment, etc.?

S6 (29:46):
Yeah, I did look encouraged by some friends. I mean,
at the time I was working as a producer, but
I'd never really turned the camera around on myself. And
so I had some friends that said, why don't you
just document the journey as you go? And I really
didn't feel like it. I thought, oh, it's pretty vulnerable,
scary stuff to be capturing. But with their encouragement, I did.
And from that very first night, I just started documenting

(30:06):
it and it was really therapeutic. But also I ended
up putting that into a video, um, at the end
to show people, you know, what it's going through that experience, like,
you know, in sort of 60s and that sort of
led to some really amazing things. A book that I wrote,
Life is Tough, but so are you. And now this
connection with the Leukaemia Foundation, where I, you know, help

(30:27):
raise awareness around blood cancers because it's something I'm incredibly
passionate about. But, you know, sadly, 55 Australians will be
diagnosed today with a blood cancer, you know. So and
we're going to lose 17 people sadly today to blood cancer.
And so it's just so critical that people know the
signs and symptoms so that they can get that early detection.

S1 (30:48):
Rodney how are you going at the moment? I mean,
you sound amazing.

S6 (30:51):
Yeah. Well thanks, Peter, I am so, uh, I'm so well,
it's just extraordinary. I'm. I'm sort of seven years in
remission now. Wow. And I've been amazingly able to have
two beautiful little boys since in the last two years.
So it's been it's been a big two years. But. Yeah.
So look, I'm, I'm tired for a different reason now,

(31:13):
but it's a much better reason. And at least I
know what it is this time. It's called staying up
all night breastfeeding.

S7 (31:19):
There you go.

S6 (31:20):
So no, I couldn't I couldn't be more grateful and
appreciative for all the support and help and the amazing,
you know, care I got in Australia. And thanks in
large part to the Leukaemia Foundation as well.

S1 (31:31):
It's such a great message in terms of like, you know,
you might get this diagnosis can be scary, it can
be serious, but if things turn out well, there's a
great life after it as well.

S6 (31:40):
Absolutely. You know, Peter, and it's something that I, you know,
with my book and the work I do, the Leukaemia Foundation,
I'm so passionate about sharing that message because I know
for me, in those early days, I needed to see
stories out there of people that had dealt with this
and got through it and that they had a wonderful life.
And particularly, you know, for me, seeing women that had

(32:01):
gone through it and then had children on the other side,
that was really important to know that that was all
possible and just, you know, so I hope my story can, yeah,
shine a light and, and be a bit of a
beacon of hope for those that are being diagnosed or
will be diagnosed. Um, yeah. Because it is a really
obviously incredibly tough thing to go through. But you can
totally do it and get through it and come out

(32:22):
the other side and have a wonderful life, as you say.

S1 (32:24):
You talked about the support you're getting from the foundation
and also giving it, and September is a very important
month to kind of highlight it and sort of put
an exclamation mark on it as well.

S6 (32:35):
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I mean, I was I was
so fortunate when I went through cancer that I had
my amazing mom and dad to sort of be there
with me, and I could live with them. And they
brought me in and out. But many people don't have that.
And you know what's worse than going through cancer? Well,
going through cancer without support. And so that's what I
love about the Leukemia Foundation. You know, they can provide accommodation,

(32:56):
they can provide assistance with transport to your appointments and
as well as education information and support. So, you know,
it's practical financial emotional mental health support. They they do
the lot which is why I love them and love
spreading the good work that they are doing.

S1 (33:11):
That's a great point about the practical support, isn't it? Because,
you know, that's really important because, you know, if you
need to get to appointments, and I guess particularly for
people who might not be necessarily living in the metropolitan area.
That can be a huge thing to be on their mind,
which you know, you don't really need when you've got
other stuff to think about.

S6 (33:27):
Oh, absolutely, Peter. I will never forget leaving the Gold
Coast Hospital for treatment one day and seeing someone that
had been in the hospital and they were in a wheelchair,
and they're trying to get on a bus and get
out of there. And I just thought, oh my goodness me,
you know, like that, that is that is not okay
in this country. So, uh, yeah. And also, I think,
you know, the emotional and mental health support is just

(33:48):
so critical. I remember getting I got a call like
a few weeks after I'd finished chemo, and it was
a counsellor from the Leukaemia Foundation. She said, how are
you going? I said, oh, actually I'm not going so well,
but I hadn't, you know, I wasn't seeing a counsellor.
I didn't have someone to really talk that through other
than my, you know, amazing family, but someone with the

(34:08):
skills and just having someone say, well, I'm here anytime
you want. And it's really normal to be feeling how
you're feeling. That was that was so, um, gratifying to
hear that it was so helpful and it just knowing
that that support was there really made a big difference.

S1 (34:24):
As you say, family support is fantastic, but when you
get that professional support and you know you're hearing it
from someone who knows their stuff, that's a powerful thing.

S6 (34:32):
Totally. And I think I was very resistant to that
at first, Peter, because, oh, no, I can do this.
I'm tough. I don't need I don't need it. And
I just said, everyone, now, please don't be like me,
you know? Yes, you might be fine and you might
be able to get through it by yourself. But do
you think that if someone who has helped literally hundreds
of people get through this, that they might have a
few ideas that you could take away that might make

(34:52):
your day a bit easier and make this time a
bit easier? Then why not just embrace that and you know,
know that it's not weak to get that support and
it's actually really valid and really helpful.

S1 (35:02):
How can we get hold of your book, Brian? Is
it available?

S8 (35:04):
It is.

S6 (35:05):
Peter. Thank you. Yeah. Um, if people just, you know,
Google me basically. Brian e b r I o n y. Benjamin. Um,
I've got a website there. Bryony. Benjamin um, and they can,
they can get it, get a copy there or pass
it on to someone that's going through a tough time
going through cancer. Yeah.

S1 (35:20):
Great point. We'll put those details up with our show
notes and also how people can support the Leukemia Foundation
during the month of September. Brian, great to talk to you.
Hopefully we can speak to you in the future. And
I've got to say, it's really great to hear you
sounding so bright and bubbly and in good form. And
a big hug to Arden as well.

S6 (35:36):
Thank you Peter. I'm a very lucky lady and I
really appreciate your help spreading the word about blood cancer.

S1 (35:42):
Benjamin Barrera, an ambassador for the Leukemia Foundation. What a
wonderful ambassador. What a positive story also to be telling.
So we'll put those details up there, show notes. And
as I always say, if you have any difficulty accessing
them one 308 4746 give us a call here at
the radio station and we'll pass on the details.

S9 (36:03):
You're in elite company listening to Leslie here on Vicious
Radio radio VA radio, digital VA Radio.com and through the
TuneIn radio app.

S1 (36:25):
We've got Alison Davies on the line. G'day, Ali.

S10 (36:28):
Hi, Peter. That is such a great intro because football
doesn't interest me at all.

S1 (36:32):
I know, but you interest us even if we like
football or not. You cover all bases, I feel.

S10 (36:38):
Yeah. Thank you. I feel very loved right now.

S1 (36:41):
I will feel it. Now you're going to talk about
the positive benefits from breathing through singing or through singing
through breathing.

S11 (36:49):
Ah, yes. Well, actually, singing by default is a breathing exercise. So,
you know, you hear a lot about like, breathwork and
how important it is to do some breathing if you're, um,
nervous system is getting a bit aroused, you're feeling anxious
or excited or overwhelmed or any of those things. The

(37:09):
first thing you know that people have always said, oh,
like generations of people have said, just take a deep breath,
you know? And we now have a lot of information
about why breathwork is so beneficial to us our body,
our mood, our mind, everything. But one of the beautiful
things about singing is that just by the fact that
we're singing, we're we're doing controlled breathing as we go

(37:33):
so we can sing without having to learn breathing techniques
or like do do an actual settle in for a
breathing session. Just do that for us. It's a it's
one of those beautiful bonuses of singing.

S1 (37:46):
And that's because we kind of know the words that
we know almost instinctively when to breathe in and out
because of what we're singing.

S11 (37:52):
Yeah. So like when we sing, okay, so we can't
fully breathe in unless we've completely exhaled, right? So our,
our lungs have to be empty for us to really
then draw a deep, full breath. And what happens when
we sing is that we're slowly Really controlling, using our

(38:14):
breath and our voice to extend to the end of
the phrase or the chorus before we take a breath
for the next line. So we're fully breathing out, which
means we get a whole big intake of breath. And
the beautiful thing about this is that, you know, a
controlled breath. So if we're singing, let me give you
an example. I might be singing You are My Sunshine,

(38:38):
my Only Sunshine. Okay. Um, and I might even do
the next little bit of that line in the one breath,
because I've got enough breath capacity to do that much. Yeah.
The breath is slowly coming out of my mouth as
I sing, but because it's slowly coming out, that means
a lot of it is still in my lungs. So

(38:59):
the longer we have air in our lungs, the more
capacity there is for the oxygen to diffuse into our bloodstream.

S1 (39:08):
Right.

S11 (39:09):
And so we have then more opportunity for beautifully enriched
oxygenated blood, which impacts our brain, our everything, like our skin,
all our organs, our nails, our teeth, our eyes, our mood,
our everything. And if we're pregnant, it impacts our baby's

(39:29):
blood as well. So just by having the oxygen in
our lungs for longer and, you know, when we breathe
just generally in and out, when we're breathing without thinking it,
we're using about I do believe, but this is old.
There might be more updated data on this now, but
I remember learning many years ago that we use 10%

(39:51):
of our capacity. So our everyday breath are just little
tiny things, right?

S1 (39:57):
Yeah. Wow.

S11 (39:58):
So we're not maximizing the capacity to bring oxygen into
our blood when we're just everyday breathing. Mhm. So singing
or doing breathwork or anything else that uses our breath
in that way. It gives us the potential to have
this freshly, beautifully, richly oxygenated blood, which is just such
a very important part of our health care.

S1 (40:20):
If you keep singing, or the more you sing, and
the more you kind of use more of your lungs,
does that kind of have a sort of a multiplier effect?

S11 (40:29):
Yeah. And the more you sing, the more you you
over time. For most people, they realize that their capacity
increases to hold, to hold more breath, to have a
longer breath. They don't run out as quickly. So there's
a lot to it. I mean, even if you're singing
hip hop or something, that. So not everything is going

(40:50):
to sound like you are My Sunshine. You might.

S10 (40:52):
Be hopping or.

S11 (40:54):
Rapping or something, but even that takes incredible control. So
even if you're doing fast kind of singing, you're still
controlling your breath, you're still taking deep breaths. You're holding
that and controlling it and using it for your phrasing
and your wording. So and so also, it doesn't even
matter what you're singing. But I like to do I

(41:16):
do a style of singing called melodic mantra. And I
have a group that meets online every Wednesday. Anyone's welcome
to join us, and we sing for an hour together,
and we just sing little phrases like affirmations and, um,
we sing them on repeat. And so by singing them
on repeat over and over, we're maximizing this beautiful breathwork

(41:37):
bonus that we're getting.

S1 (41:38):
We're so in sync that. Alex, I was going to
ask you about what? About what sort of music or
what sort of songs do you sing? And I guess the,
the melodic mantras that you talk about. I mean, I
guess in a sense that's sort of a more regulated breathing,
but still with the music. So you're getting the the
best of both worlds.

S11 (41:53):
Yeah. And the repetition is what really, really helps because
repetition is what we need for anything to maximize. So repetition,
if we're doing breathwork, if we just do three deep breaths.
That's beautiful. But it's not necessarily going to give us
a big impact if we if we're sitting there singing
for an hour, it's like an exercise class for our

(42:14):
nervous system. Really. That's that's what I call it, because
it's the repetition of doing this over and over and
over for an hour, and it's enjoyable because it's singing.
It's not like we're just sitting there breathing for an hour,
which would become like boring, I would imagine.

S1 (42:29):
For a lot of people talk about, isn't it? Oh,
I can't do medication, medication, I can't do meditation because
I have to be thinking about something or I can't
not think about nothing. And I'm almost getting more agitated
trying to relax than I would otherwise be.

S11 (42:43):
Exactly. And but you know what? As well as singing,
you can also do it by reading out loud. Okay,
so when you read out to your children, when you
read books to your children, you usually make it interesting
with your voice.

S1 (42:58):
Yeah.

S11 (42:58):
And that means you're usually like controlling your breath to
get to the end of the phrase to make an
impact or to like read a paragraph without it just
being word, a few words, then a breath and few words.
You know, we we usually try and make it sound
quite musical in a way when we're reading stories.

S1 (43:16):
Or melodic anyway.

S11 (43:17):
Yes, our voice is a lot of prosody in our voice,
so there's melody in there as well. And so reading
out loud can be a great way of, um, reaping
the benefits of breathwork.

S1 (43:28):
If thinking out loud the key, because I know way
going back four and a half, five and a half years,
when we first started speaking to you every little cell,
I thought you were going to burst into that song before.
We talked about the fact that even if you don't
sing it out loud, you're still getting benefit from it,
even if it's just in your head, you are.

S11 (43:44):
But in that case, you're not getting the breathwork.

S1 (43:47):
Aha! Of course.

S11 (43:48):
So you've got to be using your voice.

S1 (43:50):
Yeah.

S11 (43:51):
To be getting the breath so you can be singing
every little cell or any song in your head. And
from a neurological perspective, your brain is like activating the
same waters the same way that it would as if
you were actually singing it apart from your motor cortex things,
but basically it's a very similar experience. So yes, singing

(44:11):
in your head or thinking about music has a really
great impact on anxiety as well, and soothing the nervous system,
but you aren't going to get the breathing benefits. So yeah,
you need to be singing out loud for that.

S1 (44:23):
All right, well, give yourself a plug. How do we
join your Wednesday group?

S11 (44:26):
Ah, I can't believe I haven't told you about it before.

S1 (44:29):
Well, what we won't do is tell us how you
do it now and then next time. What we might
talk about is expand a bit more on it, because
maybe give us some examples of your melodic mantras.

S11 (44:37):
Okay, well, let's do that next time. So the singing
group is called A Gathering of Voices and we meet
every Wednesday. But we have people come from all over
the world, so we change the time each week.

S7 (44:49):
Oh, okay.

S11 (44:50):
To meet lots of different time zones. But if you
go looking me up, Alison Davies, you will find a gathering,
a link to a gathering of voices in all of
my places. And you can explore there.

S7 (45:00):
All right, we'll.

S1 (45:01):
Chase that up and we'll put that up with our
show notes as well. Save people having to maybe hunt
too much for it.

S7 (45:06):
Thanks, Peter.

S1 (45:07):
Ali, great to catch up and thank you for calling
me your sunshine, because there's been pretty foul weather in
Adelaide in particular the last few days, so that's lovely.
And people can find out more about you, including your
group and also your social media post. Alison Davies com.au.

S11 (45:23):
Thank you very much.

S1 (45:24):
We'll catch up again next month.

S11 (45:26):
Okay. Bye.

S1 (45:27):
Alison Davies there from Alison Davies. Com.au making us all
healthier and happier just by listening to a voice.

S12 (45:38):
Yo, Holmes, what up? What up with you? What are
we gonna say? What are we gonna do? Where are
we gonna go? Where are we gonna see? We're going
to the library.

S1 (45:47):
Time to talk. Library stuff. And the best person to
speak library information with is Maureen O'Riley from the library. Maureen, great.

S7 (45:55):
To catch up. It is lovely to catch up with you, too, Peter.
I'd like to say that I'm the best person to
speak to about all stuff, except the main stuff I
know about is library stuff.

S1 (46:05):
Oh well, I'll write that down and remember that for
next time I introduce you. Uh, now we're just in
time for an event which kicks off on September the 1st.

S7 (46:14):
We are indeed. We have our writing program, which is starting,
which is really different from our other ones. This is very, uh,
focused on our beginner writers. So it's called finding Your story,
Finding Your Voice. And it's a hands on writing workshop
facilitated by Emily McGuire, who is a phenomenal author who

(46:35):
we have been fortunate to have involved in several activities
at the Vision Australia library.

S1 (46:40):
How does this work? Over three weeks.

S7 (46:42):
It is indeed. It runs on Monday the first. So
this coming Monday, and then the following Monday, the eighth
and Monday the 15th. It is all online. It's from
11 a.m. for an hour and a half, but that's, uh,
Eastern Standard Time. And Emily will work through a program
that's very much about how to find your voice, how

(47:02):
to get words down on paper, how to find your
your confidence in getting those words flowing and just overcoming
those initial hurdles. I think that everyone faces when they think,
I don't know where to start, or I don't think
I'm good enough to start. And Emily has, oh, she's
had over 15 years of running, uh, writing courses and
writing workshops, and she's really incredibly talented and mentor and trainer,

(47:28):
in addition to being an incredibly talented author.

S1 (47:31):
And I think it's a great point you make about
the fact that, you know, this is for beginners. So,
you know, kind of if you just wanted to do
it but never quite knew where to start. Well, this
is a great starting point.

S7 (47:41):
Well, it's actually really great because a number of the
large number of the registrations that we have had for
the course are people who don't normally do writing courses.
So I think the fact that it's very much positioned as,
you know, a launching pad. Somewhere to start, somewhere to
learn the basics. Really? Um, I think that has given

(48:01):
a lot of people confidence. So I'm really excited. There's
going to be a lot of fresh faces and new voices,
and I really encourage anyone that's ever wanted to do
one of our running courses, but always thought, oh, I'm
not good enough, or it's the people who have got
heaps of experience, this is the one to jump in.
This could be the first of many.

S1 (48:21):
All right. Well, we'll give you details as to how
people can register or find out more before we wrap up.
So if you want to grab something to record or
take down the details, go do that while Maureen tells
us about what is next coming up.

S7 (48:33):
Well, what we have coming up after that is actually
something that's very dear to my heart. It is one
of our children's library events, so we have been incredibly
fortunate to have Sally rippin, who is a she's just
a phenomenal children's author, uh, as the children's laureate this
year and last year. And she chose Vision Australia as

(48:56):
her partner or her organisation that she'd like to work
with during this period. So Sally is very committed to
supporting children who have various disabilities, and has written a
number of gorgeous books that are very much supporting that
feeling of inclusivity, of people with a plethora of different disabilities.

(49:20):
Come Over to My House was just a gorgeous book
that she wrote, and she has a new one that's out,
which is called The World We Can Build. So Sally
is running an event with us at Warrnambool, so that's
for our lovely country cousins. It will be based out
of Warrnambool Library and it's on the 22nd of October.
So it's after school time. It's from 330 to 4:30 p.m.

(49:45):
and it's a storytime on her book, The World We
Can Build. And it's also a big activity session, like
a crafts session. Okay, so bookings are essential. However, if
any of our clients want to attend and they cannot
get a booking, they need to contact me at Vision
Australia because we have tickets set aside for our Vision

(50:06):
Australia clients.

S1 (50:07):
Ah, bit of inside running, I like that.

S7 (50:10):
I do, I have a few stashed away in my
bottom drawer. And Sally's event will mostly be suitable for
children that fall in that 3 to 7 year old
age group. So it'll be really fun to go after
school or after kinder and have this interactive activity with
their storytime.

S1 (50:28):
Well, hats off to Vision Australia for being the organisation
that Sally's chosen.

S7 (50:31):
Oh, we're very, very fortunate. Yeah, Sally actually her son
has dyslexia, so that is part of why she is
very passionate about supporting people with a disability. And that's
where her theme for her laureate came from, which was
all kids can be readers, 80s, which is such a
beautiful thing to have her promoting over the last two years.

S1 (50:55):
The positive kind of affirmation. And it's a great point
you make about, uh, you know, print disability because certainly
Vision Australia radio, a lot of the stuff we do
is for people who might not have thought to be
able to read or, um, as good a sight as
they might like, but, uh, you know, the people with, uh,
things like dyslexia and other print disabilities, they're very much
in our target audience as well.

S7 (51:15):
Oh, definitely. And in the Vision Australia library, you know,
we have clients who are blind or have low vision,
but we also have clients who, for various reasons, cannot
manipulate a hard copy book. So it may be that
they're an amputee, they may have had a stroke. They
may have, um, Parkinson's. We have people who have trouble

(51:36):
focusing their eyes, which may be due to, again, a
cognitive issue, or it may be due to Mis. And
we have people that have processing issues like dyslexia. So
any reason that a traditional hard copy print book is challenging,
then they are all eligible to utilize the Vision Australia

(51:59):
library and our audio book.

S1 (52:00):
Alright, they've got an event in November you'd like to
tell us about. I'm sure we'll catch up with you
before then, but maybe a bit of a sneak preview.

S7 (52:06):
Well, actually, what I might do is just go back
to our events slightly because after our children's event, there
is then a panel discussion in the evening, which is
all based around dyslexia and the challenges and the triumphs
and the support and resources that are available to people.
So that is from 630 to 8 p.m., and that

(52:27):
will be in person as well as online for anybody
nationally around Australia that's important. This will include, um, Sally Rippon, uh,
Sarah Bladon, who is our Vision Australia library manager.

S1 (52:41):
Lovely.

S7 (52:42):
Sarah, also a panel member with lived experience with dyslexia.

S1 (52:45):
Well, that's really important because, you know, it's all well
and good for people to tell you you can do
it or it's okay. But if you're hearing someone who's
been through it and come out the other side, that's
a very powerful message.

S7 (52:55):
Yeah. So I really encourage everyone who's either supporting someone
with dyslexia or they have it themselves, or teaching people
that have dyslexia to join us online. And I'm sure
it's going to be really, really valuable. Uh, discussion.

S1 (53:11):
Maureen, how can we find out more about any of
the things you've spoken about.

S7 (53:14):
On the Vision Australia Library website? The place where all
good things are. So you just need to go to
Vision Australia. And you'll find all of our events will
be there, whether they're in conversations with authors, whether they're
writing programs, whether they're children's library, everything that you could
want in the world from the library we promote on

(53:36):
our website.

S1 (53:37):
Now, what about that secret stash of tickets that you've got?

S7 (53:39):
Ah, now the secret stash of tickets are there will
be a link on the website that you can go to,
or Alternatively, you can actually go to the email address
Vision Australia at Vision Australia. And if he is asked
for the secret stash of tickets, we probably get to you.

S1 (54:00):
That's the that's the secret code.

S7 (54:02):
People would be better actually asking for Sally rippin tickets.
I think that would.

S1 (54:06):
Be all right. The third rippin tickets are secret code.
Secret stash. I'm always good fun, as always. And also,
you can be contacted by phone.

S7 (54:15):
I can indeed. Anyone can contact us. The library, anyone
in the library on 1300 654 656. Or also you want to
register for any of those events, or if you would
like my secret stash of tickets, or if you just
want to know more about joining the library, please call
us on 1300 654 656. And that number is also on the

(54:41):
library website, so I can't remember it. Just remember vision australia.org/library.

S1 (54:47):
Maureen thank you for that. And I know you've got
a good finish of the year coming up, so we'll
chat to you before that happens.

S7 (54:52):
That'd be lovely. I love chatting to you Peter. You're
always such a good mood.

S1 (54:56):
Oh did I? Vice versa. Catch up soon, Maureen.

S7 (54:58):
By Peter.

S1 (55:00):
Riley there from the Vision Australia library. If that doesn't
put a smile on your face, I don't know what will.

S13 (55:06):
No, no.

S1 (55:14):
There's always a lot of myths around nutrition. Let's try
and sort some of them out with Doctor Libby Weaver,
who's a nutritional biochemist and also is an author and
a public speaker. Libby, lovely to meet you. And thank
you for your time.

S2 (55:27):
Peter, a pleasure.

S11 (55:27):
Thank you.

S1 (55:28):
It's just confusing now is that we're almost in terms
of the amount of information we have access to, be
it right or wrong.

S14 (55:34):
It's a bit tricky, isn't it? And Taste Magazine actually
surveyed some dietitians to gather some expert insights on what
Aussies felt were barriers to eating well. And you've just
identified one of them. It was that there's so much
conflicting information out there, it makes it hard to know
what to do.

S1 (55:49):
I've been doing this program for a little while, in fact,
before the internet. Let me say that goes back a while.
And I guess one of the things is now there's
so much information out there, and you've got influencers and
AI and all these sort of things to deal with,
trying to proverbially separate the wheat from the chaff.

S14 (56:04):
Absolutely, Peter. It can be really difficult. So a simple
message for people to consider is there's no such thing
as junk food, there's just junk and there's food. And
as humans.

S15 (56:15):
As humans, for a really.

S14 (56:16):
Long time, all we've ever eaten is food. And so
there's always going to be fads that come around that
encourage us to eat this. And not much of this.
But if we keep it simple and I think bring
some common sense back, it can really make a difference.

S1 (56:29):
Well, tell us about some of the results from the
survey and then some of the myths, and then maybe
how we should be thinking.

S14 (56:35):
When taste surveyed the dieticians, one of the most common
misconceptions was the idea that carbohydrates are inherently bad or
lead to weight gain. That was the most common one.
And to bust that myth, our brain and our kidneys
and our red blood cells all require glucose. And we
obtain that glucose from carbohydrates, both our starchy foods and
our sweet foods. But the trouble is, we're having too

(56:57):
many of the poor quality ones. So at the moment,
the World Health Organization says it's okay for us to
have six teaspoons of added sugars per day. But in Australia,
we're having 37 teaspoons of added sugars per person per year.
And if you do that every day, it adds up
to 45kg of sugar. It's just way too much. So
we want to get our carbs from Whole Foods. So
from things like potato, sweet potato, pumpkin and fruit, not

(57:21):
so much from the ultra processed junk that I mentioned
a moment ago.

S1 (57:24):
Now, I'd like to talk to you for a little
bit longer, but just to kind of break it down.
So if you're eating, if I can call it real food,
you're kind of on the right track.

S14 (57:32):
Yes, very much so. And the dieticians who were surveyed,
they were asked to pick the foods that they think
Australians would be better off eating more of, and the
top of the list that they all agreed on was broccoli.
So easy to include that on a regular basis. And
the second one was extra virgin olive oil, followed by lentils, blueberries,
and eggs. So, you know, they're just whole real foods.

(57:52):
They're basic foods. It's nothing tricky. And to help support
Australians to to do this taste, have come up with
100 really fresh and nutritious recipes for people to embrace
over the next 100 days. So as we lead into
the warmer months, it can be a lovely time to
refresh the recipes we're using.

S1 (58:09):
Because the other thing is, I mean, we're all we
all think we're short on time, don't we?

S14 (58:13):
Yes. Very much. And and as a result of that,
we tend to grab things on the way home, work
or pull, you know, a highly processed frozen meal out
of the freezer. Whereas the idea with cooking from scratch, obviously,
or certainly cooking from scratch more often, is that we
can then not only that night eat in a more
nutritious way, but we can have leftovers and we can
have more home cooking to access, even getting a bit organised.

(58:36):
If you've got more time on a Sunday. Using some
of these recipes from taste, you can pop those into
the freezer. So then when you need a quick meal
in the week, you're defrosting your own home cooked food.

S1 (58:46):
What about in terms of people who might be, you know,
getting on a little bit at age? Perhaps the way
they used to eat might have been a good way.
If we can almost go back to that, perhaps we
take a few lessons from Grandma and Grandpa, that sort
of thing.

S14 (58:57):
Peter, I wholeheartedly agree. And certainly, you know, if we
end up in a situation where we're living by ourselves
and we end up relying a little bit too much
on tea and toast, and it's not a meal, we'd
be better off putting an egg on that piece of
toast to make it a bit more nutritious, at least.
But it's finding some recipes that you don't necessarily want
to cook every day. And that's why cooking a bit

(59:17):
more in bulk and so you've got those leftovers can
just take the pressure off so that you've got those
lovely home cooked meals. And yes, taking lessons from our
forefathers and foremothers. I think they were getting the nutrition
probably a bit better than a lot of us are
these days.

S1 (59:31):
But I don't mean to sound condescending. That's very perceptive
of you, because I'm sure we all have older people
in our families who might be on their own. You know,
maybe left on their own in a sense. The partner
might have passed away. And that is sometimes one of
the things they say, isn't it, that, well, you know,
there's only me. I'm not going to spend a lot
of time preparing a meal just for me. But as
you say, if you can maybe add a few things
to it or do a little bit extra and then

(59:52):
put it in the freezer for tomorrow night or even
a few nights time, that can be a good thing to.

S14 (59:56):
Very much, Peter. And just to think about it, you know,
it might be, oh, I feel like I can cook
two nights a week, so terrific. And then make sure
you've cooked some leftovers that you can pull out. But
also think about something simple, like an omelette that you
can chop up and put some vegetables into, you know,
and an egg is a very nutritious food. So it's
thinking of those simple little things so that you're getting

(01:00:18):
the vitamins and the minerals and the fibre and the
antioxidants and all of the things we know are really
important for health and energy, but also to maintain our
cognitive function. Our body doesn't do too well when we
live on food that doesn't have very much nutrition in it.

S1 (01:00:31):
Yeah, we're all obviously aware of the cost of living.
This doesn't have to be an expensive thing. I mean,
I guess if we can be a little bit, what's
the word choice? But choosy when we shop as well
or spend a little bit of extra time looking for bargains, etc..

S14 (01:00:44):
Exactly. Peter and Taste have very much kept that in mind.
It's a challenge that so many Australians are facing right now,
so they've very much kept the cost of living in
mind when they've created these 100 recipes for people to
have a go at over the next 100 days, and
not just the cost of living, but also the simplicity.
So there's some lovely simple recipes as well that aren't complicated.

S1 (01:01:05):
They're your favourites. Is there anything that you know if
you're short for time, and I'm sure just looking at
your CV, you're obviously a very busy person, so you're
obviously pressed for time a lot of your time. What's
the sort of stuff that you fall back on?

S14 (01:01:16):
I use mince a lot, so I've got a lovely
local butcher and I'll buy some beautiful grass fed mince
and add all sorts of vegetables to that. I talk
about omelettes because I make them for myself, because they're
a terrific way to throw all sorts of things into.
But as far as the recipes that taste have developed,
there's a whole host that are, you know, really simple.
So even just a savory mince that they show you

(01:01:37):
how to add more nutrition to that. So again, as
I said, it doesn't have to be complicated. And I'm
lucky I have chickens in my backyard so I have
lovely fresh eggs.

S1 (01:01:45):
Peter okay, well you certainly are very lucky. And I guess,
you know, that's the sort of thing that you can
take advantage of. Or and maybe if you've got neighbors
or if you're, you know, a relative or someone might
be in a similar position, maybe explore those opportunities as well.

S14 (01:01:59):
Exactly. It's it's so lovely. If you know that there's
an older person nearby and they're by themselves, it'd be
lovely to offer to do a shop for them. Or
when you've cooked for your own family, offer to provide
a serve for them. It can just make such a
difference to their quality of life. And also, of course,
the connection you have with them. Food is such a
lovely way for us to connect with people we love

(01:02:20):
and our neighbours, as you just mentioned. So cooking brings
so much to life, not just good nutrition.

S1 (01:02:25):
And of course we're getting towards the end of August,
early September, coming in the spring. Uh, a lot of
stuff in the supermarkets, in the fruit and veg shops,
you know, sort of coming into season. Is that something
you're pretty big on is kind of trying to eat
things that are in season.

S14 (01:02:37):
Peter very much so. And I think we we can
easily forget that, can't we? We sort of expect everything
to be available all the time, but things that are
in season are the cost of them is less, obviously,
because they are season, and they won't have had to
have travelled so far quite often to where we are.
So yes, choosing seasonal produce is a great way to
go for many reasons. It's fresher and more affordable usually

(01:02:58):
as well, but certainly in the taste survey that they
did with dieticians, the dietitians wanted us all to prioritise
eating more vegetables, followed by legumes and pulses and then
some protein rich foods. All of that was was in
the top 20 foods they're encouraging us to eat. And
so as the weather does start to warm up, yes,
it can be a lovely time to think. What are
some new things I can try? So the Taste Healthy

(01:03:19):
100 initiative has those hundred recipes there for people to try.

S1 (01:03:23):
Well, the other thing isn't it? Maybe if you think
you're a bit sort of stuck in your ways, I mean,
maybe a little bit of imagination or trying something a
little bit different just for the fun of it.

S14 (01:03:31):
That's it. Because sometimes all we need is a bit
more inspiration to support us to develop some more healthy habits.

S1 (01:03:36):
Alright, where can we find out more?

S14 (01:03:38):
Peter, all of the recipes are at tasty, so 100
recipes are there to help people have 100 days of
feel good eating, and the collection of recipes is designed
to inspire people and support healthy habits over an extended period,
and help people to have an actual lived experience of
what better health through nutrition can actually feel like. I

(01:03:59):
think to many of us have forgotten how good we
can actually feel.

S1 (01:04:02):
And I guess the 100 days is a good sort
of testing period, isn't it? I mean, you're not going
to necessarily start well, eating well today. You're going to
feel better tomorrow. Hopefully you do. But over 100 days
you're going to give it a bit of time to
kind of absorb and assimilate.

S14 (01:04:14):
Spot on. I could not have said it better myself.
That's that's exactly the case and it doesn't necessarily change overnight.
There are some small improvements that happen on the inside,
but we will. We feel better when we've lived consistently
looking after ourselves a bit better. So yeah, hopefully the
recipes are really useful for people.

S1 (01:04:31):
Libby. We'll put those details up with our show notes.
Thank you for speaking to us. And, uh, hopefully we
can speak to you again in the future.

S14 (01:04:36):
Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

S1 (01:04:38):
That's Doctor Libby Weaver, who's a nutritional biochemist, also a
public speaker and an author. Talking about 100 days of
good eating. You'll feel better for it, and your family will, too.

S9 (01:04:54):
On the Vision Australia Network through your favorite podcast service
on 1190 7 a.m. in Adelaide. You're listening to Leisure Link.

S1 (01:05:17):
It's that time of the month where we have yoga
on the radio and the best person, the only person
to bring it to us is River. River. Good to
have you back with us again.

S16 (01:05:26):
Yes. Is. Hello, Peter.

S17 (01:05:28):
What have you got for us this evening?

S16 (01:05:30):
I've got a simple one, and it's simple. It's known
as the lion's pose or roar of the lion.

S17 (01:05:37):
Hmm.

S16 (01:05:38):
It's quite a simple one. A lot of tricks to it.
Don't think there's any real. I'm thinking of conditions, but
it's a pretty basic one. Anyway, I'll go through it.
And people know what's wrong with themselves, what they can
and they can't do. In any case.

S1 (01:05:53):
That's true.

S16 (01:05:53):
With this one. You sit between your heels, knees slightly apart,
so that your bottom is on the floor or close
to it, or another attorney sit on your heels. Otherwise,
just sit in a chair and make sure you sit
up straight and you know feet are down on the
floor and back is nice and straight. Now the palms
of the hands. If you're on the knee doing that

(01:06:14):
kneeling one, you can either place the palms of the
hands on your thighs or just in front of your
knees and spread the fingers out a little bit. So
if you're in a chair, of course you'd have the
palms of the hands on the on, on on your thighs.
Lift the chin up a little. Not much. Just letting
the head go back. Now your eyes are open and

(01:06:34):
you look up towards the third eye, which is approximately
the center of the forehead. Now if that's not comfortable,
you just look up that little bit and straight at
a wall or whatever in front of you. Nothing that moves.
So when you're ready, you inhale through your nose, pause,
stiffen the whole body, open your mouth wide, poke the

(01:06:55):
tongue out and down, and slowly let the breath out
in a ha ha. So it's coming right down, you know,
from the base of your throat. Right through.

S1 (01:07:05):
Yeah.

S16 (01:07:06):
You relax the tongue back in the mouth and head straight,
and you can repeat that 5 to 7 times. Now
if you find it hard. I talked about focusing your
eyes on the wall if you can't focus it on
the Ajna chakra. Now the benefits. Peter. There's quite a
few here. Yeah. Very good for general health. The respiratory

(01:07:26):
system is vitalized can discourage sore throats developing. Also said
to assist people who stutter is energizing. So you feel
more alert. Eyes and face look brighter and it strengthens
the vocal cords and develops a strong and beautiful voice.
And speech is clearer, so I must continue to practice

(01:07:47):
this one.

S1 (01:07:49):
Lots of benefits. Lots of good benefits.

S16 (01:07:51):
The posture can also help you to let go of
frustration and anxiety, lose inhibitions and become more confident in yourself.
Good benefits for something so simple. Now we've got the
throat chakra vishuddhi which that one is for balance and
harmony and basically all body parts. And of course it
helps us stroke the voice, etc.. Each nerve center of

(01:08:14):
the pituitary gland. Wisdom, intuition and knowledge. So two quite
good chakras there. said use. At the same time, in
the past I have used it and it has helped
me not to have a sore throat, if I can
put it that way. So when you practice and you
use it for yourself, you know that it does work.

S1 (01:08:35):
Oh that's right, self recommendation. It's perfect.

S16 (01:08:39):
And I think I should have done this one a
few times this morning because when I went to my singing,
I had trouble singing. My voice wasn't going properly for
some reason.

S1 (01:08:48):
Ah, okay.

S16 (01:08:49):
But I had used it in my yoga lesson yesterday
with my students.

S1 (01:08:53):
So remember, for next time you go singing.

S16 (01:08:57):
It's a fine when I say to it. When I'm
giving it to a class, look at it. You're up
high on a cliff and you're looking down on all those.
Your subjects down there, all the other animals there. And
you're the boss.

S1 (01:09:10):
Yeah.

S16 (01:09:10):
So you really that that roar out, letting them know
that here you are. You're the king or the queen,
if you want to put it that way.

S17 (01:09:19):
Yes.

S1 (01:09:21):
Take us through it again.

S16 (01:09:22):
Please sit between your heels, your knees slightly apart, so
that your buttocks come onto the floor or close to it.
Another alternative is to sit on the heels or otherwise
sit in a chair and check that your back is
nice and straight. And if you're in a chair, make
sure your feet are nice and flat on the floor
as well. Now you place the palms of the hands
on your thighs, or you can put them just in

(01:09:45):
front of your knees. If you're in the kneeling position
and spread the fingers apart a little bit. So when
you're putting the palms on the floor, you are leaning
forward a little bit. So you lift the chin up,
just tilting your head back a little bit. Your eyes
are open, looking up towards the third eye, which is
approximately the middle center of your forehead. But if that
feels awkward, just look up on a wall straight ahead

(01:10:08):
of you and don't have any shadows or anything moving
on it, otherwise you'll get distracted. So when you've got
that all into position, you inhale through your nose, pause.
Holes stiffen the whole body. Open your mouth wide. Poke
the tongue out and down and slowly let the breath
out in that. Ah!

S17 (01:10:27):
Whoa!

S16 (01:10:28):
No!

S1 (01:10:29):
Perfect.

S16 (01:10:30):
And you laugh at yourself.

S17 (01:10:32):
Yeah. Yeah.

S16 (01:10:33):
De-stress the tongue back in the mouth and you straighten
your head. But you can repeat it five, seven times.
You probably wouldn't need any more than that. Now, let's
have a look and I'll go through the benefits again. Yeah.
Very good for general health. The respiratory system is vitalized
can discourage sore throats developing. Also said to assist people

(01:10:56):
who stutter. Energizing. You feel more alert. Eyes and face
look brighter and strengthens the vocal cords. Develops a strong
and beautiful voice and speech becomes clearer. And this posture
can also help you to let go of frustration, anxiety,
lose inhibition, and become more confident in yourself.

S1 (01:11:15):
Lots of great benefits. That was wonderful and a bit
of a laugh, which is also good. Now people want
to contact you for some one on one. How can
we do that?

S16 (01:11:23):
Yes they can. On my mobile 041286096.

S1 (01:11:30):
Riva, that was tremendous. Thank you so much. We'll catch
up again next month.

S16 (01:11:34):
Thank you.

S1 (01:11:35):
Peter, have a good night.

S16 (01:11:36):
Good night to everyone. And we speak to you in
another month.

S17 (01:11:39):
Riva.

S1 (01:11:40):
Right there for.

S17 (01:11:41):
Yoga.

S1 (01:11:41):
On the radio. 0412 806 096.

S18 (01:11:49):
Hi, I'm Lauren Parker, world champion Paratriathlete. And you're listening
to leisure link with Peter Greco on the Vision Australia
radio network.

S1 (01:12:10):
Well, technology moves so quickly and one person can't slow
it down to the pace that we can consume is
adjunct professor from USA. Denise.

S17 (01:12:18):
Denise, welcome.

S3 (01:12:19):
Hello, Peter.

S15 (01:12:20):
Good to be with you today.

S1 (01:12:21):
Google under the spotlight today.

S15 (01:12:23):
Ah, well, you know, as I said last month and
the month before, another month, another event and another big
tech line up. And not to be disappointed. Uh, we
had the Made by Google Showcase on August the 20th.
And in that event, Google launched its new lineup of
pixel devices, including the pixel ten, pixel ten Pro, pixel

(01:12:47):
ten Pro XL for Extra Large, the pixel ten Pro Fold,
and the Pixel Watch four and Pixel Buds to A.
We haven't got all of the reviews out because obviously
that was only a week ago, and, uh, there's preorders
at the moment in Australia, but, uh, the really notable advances, uh,

(01:13:09):
advancements in the pixel phone is Google's latest Just Jim
and I. Of course, we can't get through a session,
can we? Peter, without talking about AI. So? So this
pixel phone lineup really revolves around Gemini AI features. And
as we know, if you're going to use AI, you

(01:13:30):
of course have to beef up the processor, don't you?
So not to be outdone by Apple, this pixel phone
now has the tensor G5 processor. So, uh, not to
get too technical, but it's designed to improve the CPU
central processing unit performance by up to 34% over previous generation.

(01:13:53):
So that's a huge leap. Of course, by doing that,
it means that it's much more efficient and able to
handle tasks like on device speech recognition, which we know
is so important for accessibility, real time translation, and of course,
more advanced artificial intelligence tasks. So the lineup sort of

(01:14:15):
starts in Australia of the entry level pixel ten at
around 1350. But as you can imagine, the higher you
go up through to the Pixel Pro fold, which comes
up to one terabyte of storage. You're looking up around 3250.
So all these new updates of course, starting entry level

(01:14:38):
is pretty good. But you know, if you want the
state of the art and that Pixel Pro fold should
be out around the 28th of October. So, um, these, uh,
look on the outside, very, very similar in size. There's
improvement in the battery life. Um, much better improvements on, um, uh,

(01:15:00):
the dust and water resistance. It's now, uh, Ip68, which
just means that, uh, particularly, you know, for the fold model,
it's so important that, you know, there's no risk of
getting dust and water into corrode the internal technology. And
they come with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus two, which means

(01:15:23):
obviously they're tougher glass. So it has the usual fingerprint sensor,
secure face unlock, big new change for Google. It's added
magnetic wireless charging. They will snap, which is of course
very similar to Apple's MagSafe technology. There's an improvement in

(01:15:45):
resolution and brightness levels. There's a real major update to
the camera setup. The pixel ten features a 48 megapixel
main camera, and when we get up to the higher ones,
we are also talking about five times optical zoom, so

(01:16:05):
that's really challenging. iPhone now to have the zoom features,
as well as up to 100 times zoom. If you
use the AI feature, that sort of fills in the details.
So pretty impressive. Take a shot and you can get
that level of zoom. It will ship with Android 16

(01:16:26):
and seven years of operating system and security updates. That's
pretty big news.

S1 (01:16:32):
All right. Yeah. Uh, 2032.

S15 (01:16:35):
And, you know, so we were talking about the AI features.
It's got Gemini Nano, which is an on device AI utility.
That means you can use things like image recognition, audio
transcription without being connected to the internet. Now, that's really
big news, particularly for those that are traveling. Yeah. Uh, so,

(01:16:56):
you know, having the ability to use that voice translation now,
voice translation across different languages is apparently really impressive. So
you can speak to someone on your pixel phone and
the person speaking on the other phone. You know who
speaks a different language can hear it in their language.

S1 (01:17:17):
Wow.

S15 (01:17:18):
They see text transcriptions also shown on the screen. Ah.
Apparently it samples the caller and recipients voices to replicate them.
And you don't even have to train the model to
your voice. So that's really quite something. So. Yes. So, uh. Yeah.
So if you're in the market for a new phone,

(01:17:43):
you might want to check out the new Google Pixel range.

S1 (01:17:47):
All right. Now, uh, of course, I think we're coming
up to three years since the launch of ChatGPT. And
there's been a bit of controversy about ChatGPT five this week.

S15 (01:17:56):
Oh, absolutely. So we were all excited because, you know,
ChatGPT was, uh, was going to be, you know, the
most powerful model yet, but it seems that, you know,
the marketing didn't quite go to plan. So originally, you know,
you could log in to ChatGPT and you could use, um,

(01:18:17):
I think it was up to about 11 different kinds
of AI models, including one that was very popular, which was, um,
the zero four. So what, uh, OpenAI did, in all
its infinite wisdom was it just said, well, ChatGPT five
is so much better than the previous models. We just

(01:18:39):
going to only make ChatGPT five available. Well, you know,
as an early adopter, of course, I launched, like probably
everyone in the world into OpenAI to check out this
new ChatGPT five. And Peter, the lag would have to
be under, you know, if you remember, I go far

(01:19:01):
this far back to the old modem technology, where, yes,
you would literally type one letter and then wait. Yeah,
that was what it was like. You typed.

S7 (01:19:11):
Wow.

S15 (01:19:12):
You're not just waiting for its response. Even typing in
the prompt took ten minutes, by which time it had
usually timed out. So there was massive outrage. Not only
because it was so slow, but mostly because it removed
all the previous models, which people really love because the
previous models were, you know, the name chat. They were chatty,

(01:19:35):
they were quite friendly, you know, they were very personable.
And the new one was sort of super slick and efficient,
but not like your friend. So people who had really
become friendly with chat, GPT oh three or oh four
were quite devastated and very angry. So Sam Altman, who

(01:19:57):
leads OpenAI, did a grovelling apology and promptly Properly reintroduced
chat GPT four zero for for those, and I have
to say, it's, uh, chat GPT five. I guess because
your user base is now spread over more models again
is back to a super fast efficiency, and it is

(01:20:19):
very slick and very efficient, but not the way to
launch a new product, I have to say.

S1 (01:20:26):
Lesson learned.

S15 (01:20:27):
Absolutely.

S7 (01:20:28):
Yeah.

S1 (01:20:29):
Hey, Janice. Wonderful. Thank you so much. We'll catch up
again next month.

S15 (01:20:33):
Look forward to that. Peter.

S1 (01:20:34):
That's Professor Eastwood from USC making technology simple. Put it
in a nice little language. And Denise Johnson at about
this time each month. A couple of quotes before we go.
Francesco set one through grinder. Francesco says quite through, quite regularly.

(01:20:55):
This one is we can't heal the world today, but
we can begin with the heart of love. A voice
of compassion and an act of kindness. And, Francesco, thanks
for sending that through. Comes from Mary Davis. A bit
like how we wrap up the program, isn't it? And
one through from Amanda, who says some people chase milestones.

(01:21:18):
I like milestones. Thanks, Amanda for your quite really appreciate that.
Some birthdays before we go. Sam Valavanis having a birthday.
The face of vision Australia carols. A few years ago.
Hope you're going well. Sam. Happy birthday to you. Luke Moriarty.
We spoke to Luke on the program about this time
last year. Overcome a serious injury and serious illness and

(01:21:41):
was able to play finals football. So, Luke, hope life
is going well for you. And the very delightful Siobhan Paton.
Having a birthday captured the hearts and minds of everyone
at the Sydney Paralympic Games in the pool. Siobhan Paton
having a birthday. A very big happy birthday to you.
If you're listening through 1190 7 a.m. in Adelaide. Stay tuned.
Vicki Vicky Cassidy is coming up very soon with Australian

(01:22:02):
Geographic's No Woodville-west Torrens in the far north, but certainly
Vicki is still here. Up and about. Stay tuned for that.
Thank you Sam Rickard for your help. Purple mission accomplished
last weekend. Thank you Pam Green for your help. Also,
James for your help. Thanks to the team for helping
us put the program together. Reminding you that listening is
available wherever you get your favorite pod. You cool cats.

(01:22:25):
You be kind to yourselves, be thoughtful, and look out
for others. All being well. Let's link back at the
same time next week on Vision Australia Radio and the
Reading Radio Network. This is leisure link.

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