By CASEY NEILL
CRANBOURNE man Ian Brandon has received a $1000 thank-you for his contribution to the community.
The 54-year-old known widely as Uncle Ian received the Cranbourne Chamber of Commerce’s inaugural Community Award on Thursday 13 August.
Chamber vice-president Kate Parkinson said Cranbourne’s Casey RACE did not employ Mr Brandon, nor was he a volunteer.
“He is a regular member of the Cranbourne community who visits the centre each week for his own rehabilitation,” she said.
“His big smile, kind heart and engaging nature draw staff and members to him.
“Ian has a natural ability to locate people that are lonely or need support, engaging those who otherwise may be socially excluded.”
But Mr Brandon didn’t feel he’d earned the award.
“It’s just what I do every day,” he said.
“It was really humbling actually.
“I was just expecting a free meal and maybe a bit of paper! When they gave me the money it was just incredible.
“I don’t know whether to use it for myself or to help other people in the community.
“People say to me all the time ‘I’m inspired by you’.
“I just see it as doing what I’ve got to do. If other people get something out of it, that’s fantastic.
“They brighten my day.
“They don’t realise every individual person brings something to my life.”
Mr Brandon was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) about 15 years ago.
“I was about 38 and I was playing basketball and I got a bit of drop foot and got paralysis down my right side,” he said.
“The doctors thought I’d had a mild stroke. I thought I’d just done the ligaments in my leg.”
Finding out he had MS “really didn’t faze me”.
“I took it in my stride because you don’t get to pick your challenges in life,” he said.
“You just get to pick how you deal with them.
“Over the years, I’ve deteriorated but I’ve always strived to do everything to my best ability.
“I’ve always focused on what I can do, not on what I can’t do.”
Mr Brandon uses a structured exercise routine in lieu of medication.
It includes classes at Casey RACE five days a week – spending time with his three grandchildren takes up the other two days.
“It’s a lifestyle for me,” he said.
He makes the three-kilometre journey to the pool on his scooter.
“When I leave here, it can take me up to an hour and a half, two hours to get home because I get stopped to talk to everybody,” he said.
“It just brings so much to my world.
“You wake up in the morning and choose to be happy.
“In life there’s always good and bad. If you focus on the bad you’ll have a bad day.”
About two years ago, Mr Brandon’s fellow hydro pool attendees had been discussing a lunch.
“I got a piece of paper and stuck it up on the notice board and called it Ian’s Lunch,” he said.
“We got about 50 people down there.”
It’s continued at Cranbourne RSL every couple of months since, attracting 30 to 50 people from different cultures and walks of life.
“They probably wouldn’t associate with each other in the normal world but in the pool, everyone’s on the same plane,” Mr Brandon said.
“After a while, people aren’t coming back to do their exercises – they’re coming back to see their friends. They’re part of the community.
“That’s what this place brings.”
