THE best qualities of St George and Sutherland Shire residents were on display at the sixth Southern Sydney Volunteer Expo at the Sutherland Entertainment Centre last Thursday.
The expo is held by 3Bridges Community to promote the valuable work of community groups to potential volunteers.
This year's expo was a poignant one for David Morrison, a carer and volunteer with St George and Sutherland Parkinson's Support Group.
His wife, Maureen, died on September 14 after a 19-year battle with Parkinson's. She was 71.
Despite her death, Mr Morrison decided to staff the group's information booth at the volunteer expo, held last Thursday at Sutherland Entertainment Centre.
"Most of our volunteers are people who were carers," he said. "The people who lose their loved ones stay on."
Mrs Morrison was the reference librarian at Sutherland's central library.
"In 1995, she was going to university as a mature-age student and she found she couldn't write," Mr Morrison said. "She went to her GP who ruled out Parkinson's.
"But he sent her to a neurologist. When he saw her he said he knew straight away she had come about her Parkinson's because she did not swing her arms when she was walking.
"He was spot on and thus began Maureen's life for the next 19 years living with Parkinson's."
At the time, Mrs Morrison said: "I had a choice, I could lie around and wait to die or I could get out there and educate myself on this disease and ensure I did not end up as a file number in a busy doctor's surgery".
With Mr Morrison acting as chauffeur and audio-visual support worker, Mrs Morrison travelled throughout Sydney, the central coast and southern highlands speaking on living with Parkinson's to everyone from young physios at the University of Sydney, to children at primary schools and community groups to carers in aged-care centres.
She also edited Parkinson's NSW's monthly magazine Chit Chat. When it become too much for her, Mr Morrison took over.
"A deep-brain stimulation operation gave Maureen at least an extra five years to travel overseas and to see much of rural NSW, Adelaide, the Great Ocean Road and other places," Mr Morrison said.
The St George and Sutherland Parkinson's Support Group has 160 members.
"Last year we raised $20,000 for Parkinson's research, more than any other NSW group," Mr Morrison said.
Myra Chalmers, whose husband succumbed to Parkinson's, has been the group's president for the past 15 years.
She said there was a growing demand for the group's work.
"We are seeing more and more instances of Parkinson's and they are getting younger, as young as 15," she said.
"Thirty people are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in Australia every day.
"It is the second most prevalent neurological disease next to Alzheimer's and yet we get no funding."
St George and Sutherland Parkinson's Support Group meets at Sylvania community hall on the fourth Wednesday of the month, 10am-1pm, followed by a light lunch.
The Parkinson's Carers group meets on the second Wednesday of the month, 10am, Donald Robinson Village, Flora Street, Kirrawee.
Details: 9525 7215.
HELPER FOCUS
More than 45 groups took part in the sixth Southern Sydney Volunteer Expo, including Meals on Wheels, Nurses on Wheels, WIRES, SES, St George Community Transport, St George Migrant Resource Centre, Joshua’s Kitchen, Sydney Tramway Museum and many more.
Read more volunteer stories in the next edition of the Leader.
