2025 WA Senior Australian of the Year Brother Thomas Oliver Pickett AM

Australian Community Media

Meet Your Australians - 2025 WA Senior Australian of the Year Brother Thomas Oliver Pickett AM. ACM is proud to be media partner for the 2025 Australian of the Year Awards.

Transcript

00:00There are so many kids in the world that need a wheelchair. According to World Health there's

00:06thousands and thousands and thousands of children need a wheelchair for all sorts of reasons.

00:11At Wheelchairs for Kids we have a mission statement. We listen, we care, we give to

00:18children with disabilities around the world so they can get off the ground, have mobility

00:24as well as dignity. The start of Wheelchairs for Kids actually started in Brisbane. A fellow

00:29called Des Laurence went with his wife to Fiji on a holiday and he found these little

00:34kids on the ground with cerebral palsy and he thought I'm going to do something about

00:39this. Anyway he came back and he made six wheelchairs out of bikes he found at the tip.

00:46And he took them back, he saw the fun the kids were having, the other kids were pushing

00:49them around, first time ever being off the ground, and he said there must be other children

00:54in the world like this who need a wheelchair. And he asked any rotary club in Australia

00:59to see if anyone could help and that's how I got involved and I've loved it ever since.

01:04Wheelchairs for Kids is a voluntary organisation. I'm now the volunteer factory manager. I'm

01:11there every day and I've got to make sure that the orders we've got get out on time.

01:18All the people who make the wheelchairs, we're all volunteers, we come from all walks of

01:21life. We've got 235 retired people through the week. It leads me on to the wonderful

01:26ladies who are sewing the covers for all the covers we need, the back supports, all

01:32the hip and trunk supports, the headrests. We thank our donors and also our suppliers

01:39for the wonderful prices they give for the parts for making the wheelchairs and our wonderful

01:46donors who regularly send in money to make the wheelchairs. We're very, very grateful.

01:51The impact of Wheelchairs for Kids, I think, is the fact that we've sent away now 60,

01:58just over 61,000 wheelchairs to 81 countries around the world, including the mission parts

02:05of Australia. Having been overseas and seeing a lot of these little kids that we've sent

02:10wheelchairs to, the joy and the happiness on their face once they get off the ground

02:15and sitting comfortably in a chair, it does give you a lot of satisfaction. That's what

02:22really keeps me going. What we're trying to do with these little kids is to give them

02:25a new life, just a better life than what they're having at the moment.

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