Tuesday, 11 February, 2025
Lightning lights up the forests
Debris issue at off-leash park
End of Yarra Glen and District History Group
See Real Estate liftout inside
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A Star News Group Publication
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Roos’ story By Dongyun Kwon A Dutch woman is inviting locals to her autobiographical performance Able. Roos Rijnbeek is living with a disability named achondroplasia which is a genetic condition affecting a protein in the body called the fibroblast growth factor receptor. Achondroplasia leads to shorter bones, abnormally shaped bones and shorter stature; adult height in people with achondroplasia is between 42 and 56 inches. Rijnbeek studied theatre and education at Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands. Through what she loves, Rijnbeek found her own way to make a more inclusive and diverse society where difference is not something to be tolerated but something to be celebrated. “Able is an autobiographical solo performance about living life in a society that’s not made for you because you are different because of your disability,” she said. “I am short-statured but that’s just a little part of me, Roos is so much more than just that. By creating this performance, I’m opening up about that side of my life, about my disability, about my short staturedness.” Read more on page 15
Roos Rijnbeek’s autobiographical performance Able is coming to The Memo Healesville on 22 and 23 February. (Supplied)
Better care calls A near-death experience for a Yarra Junction man has prompted him to share his story in the hopes of bringing emergency care services to the Outer East. Larry Norman was walking down to his neighbour’s house on 25 October 2024 when he collapsed in pain, suffering from an abdominal aortic aneurysm, known as a ‘Triple A’, where the main blood vessel travelling through the body is close to rupturing in the abdomen.
Mr Norman said he was just saying ‘God help me’ to himself as a neighbour from the top of the hill drove down the road. “He never looked up that driveway, but this time he did and saw me laying on the ground and rang Triple O,” he said. Within two hours, Mr Norman was in surgery and four and a half hours later, the doctor rang his wife to inform her he was in a very serious condition and that Triple A’s only have a five per cent
chance of survival. But survive he did, and after a lengthy hospital stay across both Box Hill Hospital and Maroondah Hospital, Mr Norman was released just in time for his 30th wedding anniversary which he spent happily at the Upper Yarra RSL. Mr Norman said he now wants to see more emergency centres in regional Victoria. “I know the Warburn Hospital sold in 2002 for $3.7 million, they had two operating theatres, it’s two-story, they had 25 staff and nurses’ houses
behind it and nurses’ quarters, they refurbished it in 2020 and it’s still empty, they didn’t even use it during Black Saturday,” he said. “With this mountain bike track coming around here, they’re going to need some emergency care, I started looking into other hospitals in the seat of Eildon, because I’m the president of the Eildon Branch of the National Party and the only emergency ward is Mansfield Hospital,” Turn to page 7 for more
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