“I heard the call for volunteers to help at this place on Radio 4CRB, where my wife volunteers, and I thought that would be a good place for me to work” he explained when I asked John how he found out about us.Born in Brisbane, he moved to the Gold Coast in 1954, and married his first wife in 1962. “We bought a house on Smith Street, which at the time was just a bush track, for £3,100 ($6,200 when decimal currency was introduced 4 years later). It was so remote that the Council didn’t collect the garbage from our place!” Regrettably, his first wife died young, but then he found and married his current sweetheart Tricia. He completed an apprenticeship to learn the Butcher trade. Later, he bought a Taxi License and drove cabs for some 38 years, managing to sell out just before the disrupters such as Uber arrived on the scene.
In retirement, he had quite a home based business recovering furniture. But moving heavy lounge chairs got a bit too much, so now John is helping to build Rough Terrain Wheelchairs. In his spare time, he enjoys Golf, Fishing, seeing his family, reads Readers Digest condensed books and has a strong interest on “whatever comes on four wheels...” Welcome to the Surfers Sunrise Wheelchair Team!