The Mark and Anthony story
The Mark and Anthony story started a few years ago when one of the Coordinators (Donna) came to a class that I was involved in to do a talk around Sunshine Coast Citizen Advocacy, its role in the community, stories of people needing an advocate and how advocates can greatly benefit an individual’s life.
The thought of helping and possibly improving someone’s life appealed to me greatly so I gave Donna my contact details. I was contacted by Les who focused on one person and outlined a number of concerns, their personality, interests, and how I may be able to the advocate for that person. We spent a good amount of time going through an orientation and then Les suggested how we could meet up with my now best mate Anthony.
Our initial meeting first was having a coffee with Les and Anthony and myself. I really believe we hit It off from that day and our friendship has grown stronger as time goes by. Anthony and I have the same interests in Rugby League, AFL and soccer which creates some very interesting and lively conversations as we support different teams.
We meet up at his place, go for coffee, sometimes lunch at the RSL where we have fun trying to win the raffles or at my place watching the footy. I have also visited Anthony at his workplace so I can support him in all aspects of his life. We spend great amount of time chatting and talking through any issues that may arise and are worrying him.
Anthony has a mind like a steel trap having every footy statistic, results, tit-bits of information and gossip with every team in the comp. He keeps me on my toes and I learn so much!
He loves playing competitive bowls and I will go and watch sometimes to support him but due to my recent health issues and Covid lockdowns face-to-face visits have been less frequent but we stay in regular contact by phone calls where Anthony with his wonderful sense of humour makes me laugh till it hurts.
I must say that being Anthony’s citizen advocate and being part of each others life, is one of the best things I have ever done!