HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone on the dbaust list hello Heather, John found this obituary for Peter Letch yesterday printed in The Age. You will find this article interesting, as you get a mention. Best wishes, Di From marathons to flying and diving, disability was no barrier Teresa Murphy Peter Letch MICHAEL LETCH, OAM Disabled achiever 27-10-1948 - 22-11-2013 Ricketts Point cafe in Beaumaris will never be the same now that one of its regular patrons - beloved, barefooted ''wheelie'' Mike Letch - has left us. This most amazing and inspirational of men approached his dying as bravely - and as matter-of-factly - as he lived his incredible life. Disability gave him more ability anyone thought possible: from pilot (he was one of the first in Australia to fly using modified hand controls) and wheelchair marathoner to rehabilitation counsellor, dive master and rescue diver (again, the first in Australia with a physical disability to qualify), disabled diver and instructor, and mentor to countless people of all abilities the world over. Born in Melbourne in 1948 and educated at Camberwell Grammar, Mike was a thrillseeker from a young age. At just 14 he would hitchhike from Box Hill North down Warrigal Road to Moorabbin Airport, where he was a ''hangar rat''. He and kids like him would do odd jobs in exchange for a joy flight whenever there was a spare seat. Mike had his pilot's licence before he was 17. By the time he was 18, he was hooked on motorcycles and, in his typical competitive fashion, took up speedway racing. He set off for England in 1970 and was soon racing four times a week. But in August that year he crashed and his life changed forever. After four months in hospital in England - where he ''celebrated'' his 22nd birthday - he was flown home and entered the Austin Hospital for further rehab. Again, typically Mike, he was helping in the rehabilitation of fellow patients, most vitally boosting their spirits with his positive attitude. In England, Mike had met Sir Douglas Bader, who was a World War II fighter pilot (and Colditz prisoner of war) despite losing his legs in a plane crash in 1931. Bader sent Mike specialised hand controls so he could fly solo in light planes again, which he continued to do for 10 years. In the late '80s, in the quest for more thrills, he took up wheelchair marathon racing and was soon competing all over the world. He won the Melbourne wheelchair marathon in 1997 and competed in the Osaka, Japan, marathon for seven consecutive years. Once he retired from wheelchair marathons, he returned to the sea. He had always loved the ocean, skin diving and surf lifesaving at Point Leo on the Mornington Peninsula in his youth. He found that in the weightlessness of water, there was no disability. Diving gave him the freedom his ailing body denied him. He lived for summer, when he could dive every day, usually in the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary, which he considered the best place to dive in the world. His diving colleagues carried him into the water, and off he went with hand flippers but no snorkel or tank; free diving was for him, always. And so was a coffee afterwards on the deck at Ricketts Point cafe, where even the birds - of the feathered variety - loved him. After a Churchill Fellowship that took him to the US and Japan in 2006, Mike cofounded the Disabled Divers Association in Australia and Aquability Group to provide experiences and training in basic snorkelling to scuba diving instructing. He campaigned for a disabled ramp and facilities at Ricketts Point, and secured a beach wheelchair known as a Mobi-Chair. He received an OAM in 2012 for services to disabled diving and was a crucial member of the volunteer group Marine Care Ricketts Point. Seeing disabled people transformed by a dip in the sea, be it snorkelling or diving, was for Mike the source of purest joy. ''Surfacing from the water and seeing eight empty wheelchairs on the beach - that's what it's all about,'' he said earlier this year. Last summer at Ricketts Point, he helped Heather Lawson, from Frankston, become the first deaf-blind person in Australia to go scuba diving, a logistically difficult achievement of which he was immensely proud. He said then he was looking forward to diving with her again this summer. Mike died at Bethlehem Hospital, with a large funeral held at WD Rose in Brighton a week later. His had been an extraordinary life of achievement, generosity of spirit, hardearned wisdom and inspiration. It was a life that touched so many others that news of his death - not unexpected to those close to him - swelled the hearts of his many friends and acquaintances; in great sadness, of course, but also with pride for having known such a man. Mike is survived by his brother, Peter Letch .................................................... Disclaimer: Dbaust is a free community service. While reasonable efforts are taken to ensure that messages are accurate and appropriate in scope, the moderators are unable to take any responsibility for the actual content of posts from members or for the actions of list members. To Leave dbaust, send an email to: dbaust-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx With "unsubscribe" in the subject or body of the message (without the quotes). Use "subscribe" instead if you want to re-subscribe to Dbaust. 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