Meet our Volunteers – Bryan Tuesley

Rotary member Bryan Tuesleys. Members of the Rotary Club of Surfers Sunrise, Australia, and other volunteers construct wheelchairs from recycled bicycles. Through the Sunrise Wheelchair Trust project, the club raises funds and provides mobility assistance equipment for children with disabilities around the world, primarily in Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and Africa. 7 October 2023. Arundel, Queensland, Australia.

‘A genie gives you a single wish. What is it?’ is one of my standard questions when I interview somebody. Bryan, who is sort of Volunteer ‘Foreman’ at our project shed, answered without hesitation: “To regain my health”, which underscores his valiant health battle. The permanent illness, which affects his nervous system, was caused from work exposure to poisonous chemicals during his 40 year career as a Compositor and Photo Typesetter and all pre-press large format film and photographic paper processors. For those of you younger than 50: before electronic publishing, newspaper type was first set in lead blocks made on so-called Lynotype and Ludlow machines. The Compositor was the tradesman doing that type of work. [No Henrietta, he did not compose any symphonies, nor operas… Ed.]