Going the distance together

Meet Tony.

Tony’s life changed in early 2017 when he was struck by a car whilst enjoying an afternoon bike ride. The accident left Tony with a severe brain injury, gripping on to life in intensive care with no recollection of the incident.

An active member of the Port Macquarie community, Tony had been a surf lifesaver and Port Macquarie Surf Club member of 22 years, lifeguard for 16 years, triathlete and formerly the Swim Director of the Ironman Series Port Macquarie for ten years.

Fast forward 18 months, having spent 285 days in hospitals and having endured over a dozen operations, Tony is now happy and grateful to be at home with his loving wife Leanne and family. ACARES was then introduced as Tony’s in-home care provider. Since then, ACARES staff have been instrumental in providing assistance with many tasks that others may take for granted such as domestic support, accessing the community, transport around town and therapy.

“Right now, my week is full of physio, hydro, hand therapy, gym work, leg therapy and doctors’ appointments…I had such an active lifestyle, that it’s weird not being able to do stuff”.

Tony’s goal was to increase the distance he could walk independently, as well as returning to his beloved lifeguarding duties. With the support of ACARES he has increased his daily walks to 4km per day (at a cracking pace) and become increasingly more independent with catching public transport. From requiring almost 24/7 support, Tony has drastically reduced his hours to 3.5 support days per week.

Together with Tony’s family and allied health team, staff at ACARES have worked collaboratively to not only help Tony achieve his goals, but to empower him to regain choice and control over his life.

“The support from ACARES is stuff you don’t expect you would need … but I am thankful for the support provided”.