Northern Sydney Committee 2015 Royal Rehab Putney summary

During the last four years the Men of League Foundation through the actions of Northern Sydney Committee Welfare Officers (Norm Pounder, Fred Jackson and Ken Vessey), Ben Ross and other head office representatives have established an excellent relationship with the Executives and dedicated professional staff at the Royal Rehab, Putney.

Our activities have involved regular visits to meet in-patients in the Spinal and Brain Injury Rehabilitation Units, participation in in-patient outings to NRL matches and the NRL Heroes & Legends Museum plus attending presentation and the induction of past in-patients into The Brain Injury Wall of Fame. From our very first visit we were made most welcome, encouraged to participate in their activities, explore other avenues of possible involvement and we thank all of our contacts at Royal Rehab especially Jim Towers, Community Relations Manager for making it all possible.

Recently Norm Pounder and Ken Vessey made their final welfare visit for 2015 to Royal Rehab and were delighted to meet past and new acquaintances in both the Spinal and Brain Injury Units, who were all looking forward to the Christmas Festive Season.

Amongst the many new persons we met were:

Luke McClenaghan: a sheep and cattle farmer from Armidale who was working hard at his rehabilitation to be able to return to his family farm. Amongst his other goals are to be able to drive vehicles again and discharge a firearm on his property. He was a supporter of rugby league but had no particular favourite team and was only able to watch games occasionally. We presented Luke with a Men of League polo shirt/cap and wished him every success in his rehabilitation and a speedy return home.

Branden Woodham: has been undertaking rehabilitation at Royal Rehab for a while and we had not previously had the pleasure of meeting him and his Dad, Rod. Branden was a keen as you can get Canterbury Bulldogs fan and he told us about his aspirations for a winning premiership in the coming 2016 season; there was no aspect on the Bulldogs past victories, players and coaches that Branden could not converse on.

Surprisingly Branden’s father Rod was not a Bulldogs supporter but barracked for the Auckland Warriors and he too was optimistic about a 2016 premiership winning season.

We presented Branden a Men of League polo shirt and cap, wished him continued success in his recovery and his hopes of a Bulldogs 2016 premiership come true.

Both Luke and Branden thanked us for the gifts and for taking time out to visit them.

Ken Vessey.

Photo: Luke McClenaghan and Jim Towers

Photo: Martina Fox (Royal Rehab Community Relations), Steve Scott (Father of Rob Scott), Rod Woodham (Father of Branden), Branden Woodham, Norm Pounder (in disguse) and Ken Vessey.