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
....................................................
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