Des LaRance, who is the inventor and, since the mid 1990's, the driving force behind our Wheelchair project, is still going strong, working at the project shed every Wednesday and Saturday. "No rest for the wicked", as the common saying goes. Perhaps, a better popular slogan would be "no flies on you, Des!"For those of you who at the time were not (yet) involved with the Surfers Sunrise Rotary Club: Around 1995, Des was on holiday in Fiji when he met Frank Hilton, the Principal of a Special School there. Seeing multiple seriously disabled children without any form of mobility (read: dragging themselves through the dirt on their hands), and certainly no wheelchairs, he decided that there must be a way to help. Several points needed to be considered: It had to be VERY low cost, it had to be VERY solid, and the wheelchair must be suitable for muddy, unpaved areas. Most people would simply walk away from it, return to the comfort of Australian life, and forget about it. Not Des. He built a prototype of his design that still today uses two discarded bicycles, some marine plywood and a heavy-duty castor. OK, we now fit new wheels and tyres with solid rubber tubes instead of the original wheels of the discarded bikes (flat tyres were too much of an issue). Our club supported the idea, and together with Ian Mayberry, he spread the news to other Rotary Clubs. The real breakthrough came when the "Rotary Runner", as it was then named, was exhibited at the District Conference of 1997 and attracted the attention of 'A Current Affair' host Ray Martin. who was one of the Keynote Speakers in his capacity as a Director of the Fred Hollows Foundation. Ray promised to send a TV reporter and a camera crew. And, as they say, "the rest is history". Since then, well over 11,500 'Rough Terrain' wheelchairs have been sent to all corners of the world, predominantly the South Pacific region and Africa, but in the earlier days also by the container load to Vietnam.
Download the story of The first ten Wheelchairs to Fiji'. (Photo by Geoff Croad)