Glenn Wheeler receives 'richly deserved' OAM in Australia Day Honours

Glenn Wheeler, of Caringbah, a former Australia Day Ambassador, has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the broadcast media and to the community.

The honour is official recognition of the former TV and radio personality's well-known, enormous generosity to others before he was critically injured when hit by a van while riding his motor scooter at Woolooware in January 2015.

Glenn's commitment to charities included being an Ambassador for Variety, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation and Parkinson's NSW and volunteer master of ceremonies and supporter of Rotary, Lions and the Starlight Children's Foundation.

Then there were the ad hoc community fundraisers, perhaps for a seriously ill child or a family doing it tough in other ways. Glenn would be at the microphone, squeezing every last dollar out of supporters.

Now living at Moran Sylvania, Glenn is "absolutely ecstatic" to receive the award.

Despite the challenges he deals with, he says he is "the luckiest man around" to have had the opportunity to work with wonderful people and do what he could to help make a difference for those less fortunate.

Glenn said his time in radio and television were some of the best years of his life and he is truly grateful.

He said he wanted to dedicate his OAM to his wife Michelle - "the real hero" - and his kids.

Radio 2GB presenter Ben Fordham, who worked with Glenn and has remained close, said the OAM was "richly deserved recognition for a lifetime of charity work".

"Glenn has done more to help others than just about anyone I know," he said. "I'm so proud of him and I know his local community will feel exactly the same way. We love Wheeler."

Glenn's son Dane said his father was "enjoying and adjusting to life at Moran".

"Great people there are all looking after him very well," Dane said. "He still has some friends he catches up with and would always love more.

"He can only have two visitors a day presently and it's been tough throughout, with many lockdowns, too."