Wednesday, 7 September 2022
SeniorsToday.com.au
Help is at hand from U3A
Strumming up a storm
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Aiming to stay active PAGE 8
Rural roads to adventure PAGES 20-21
Lessons learnt Lisa Curry, pictured with Leiza Blamires, was a guest speaker at the inaugural Rockhampton Mental Health Expo. “We’ve got to take the stigma away from mental health, talk openly about it, have the conversations, find the triggers, and find solutions and resources for people who are struggling every day,” Lisa said. More about the event on page 11
At your service Age is no barrier to joining the Rural Fire Brigade and helping the community according to Pat, 70, and Errol Noye, 78, of Turkey Beach. Both joined after they’d retired and not only have the pair been members of the Rural Fire Brigade for almost 20 years now but both, particular Errol who has been first officer, have been operational fire fighters for a large
chunk of that time. “We sold our business in Bundaberg in 2004 and moved up here a couple of months later,” Pat explained. “We attended an Australia Day breakfast down at the fire station in 2006 and signed up as support members. Errol wasn’t a support member before becoming a fire fighter and in 2011 I became a fire fighter. I’m no longer a fire-
fighter - I work in the background now. “That’s how it all started and it snowballed from there.” Pat admitted that she hadn’t intended to become an active firefighter at first, joining as a support person before becoming brigade secretary and fire warden. However the need for a group to conduct backburns during the week when
most people were working drove her to join Errol on the fireground at the age of 59. “With Errol it was a case of them needing fire fighters and then we found when we came to do hazard reduction burns, the best weather was normally during the week and a lot of our members worked,” she explained. Story page 5