Coolamon Rotary Bulletin Monday July 20th 2026

Monday July 20th 2026 

President Leslie Weston opened the meeting and welcomed 23 of our members to the meeting and 15 guests, including our main guest speaker Anne-Marie Bramich and her husband Jamie.  Tina Kendall-Davies our second speaker on mental health and cancer.   The Lions from Coolamon were there including their president Mark Uhr and PP of CRC Lion Wayne Lewis and Helen and four other Lions.  The Coolamon Men’s Shed was represented by Peter Condon.  Ivan Furner and Garth Perkin made up the remaining guests.

After dinner Wayne Lewis introduced our guest speaker Anne Marie Bramich who is a Prostrate Cancer Nurse and Anne-Marie’s talk centered on what is prostrate cancer and how it can be treated.  Sixty four men in Australia are diagnosed with prostrate cancer each day with around 10 who die as a result, each day from this cancer.

Anne-Marie’s advice was to get a PSA blood test done by your GP followed, and if abnormal you need to have a meeting with a specialist, who will do a physical examination, followed by advanced imaging.  Treatment options include surgery, radiotherapy and chemo therapy.  There are several side effects to surgery and treatment which includes erectile dysfunction, fatigue, urinary and bowel problems.

Anne-Marie’s talk was followed up by Tina Kendall-Davis Founder and Director of Anytime Counselling.  Tina is from Coolamon and has built a service that: delivers confidential support to rural and remote communities, breaks down barriers that stop people from asking for help, strengthens families and supports vulnerable women, and builds partnerships with local organisations to reach those doing it tough.

Mental health matters – and in small communities especially, access and anonymity can make all the difference. Tina understands that, and she is making it easier for people not just to survive, but to thrive.

Tina was named the 2026 Cootamundra Electorate Local Woman of the Year, recognised for her outstanding contribution to improving access to mental health support across regional communities.

Tina spoke in detail about why it is so important to talk about your diagnosis with good friends and family.  Tina said that it was important to do this from a mental health prospective. As some men turn to self harm and suicide as a result of their diagnosis.  Tina’s talk prompted Mark Uhr, the Lions president, to bravely speak about his son’s suicide.

All in all a very good wake up call to all of us and there were many questions asked of Anne-Marie and Tina.  Also available is Can Assist in Coolamon who are there to help.  Can Assist provides financial support to local residents who have been given a diagnosis of cancer.  You can contact them on 0493 315 162 or via their website:

Can Assist Canola Way

There was a lot to take in and the subject matter was very much appreciated by all who attended.

Thanks to Mary Potts and Michael Trinidad for the photos.

We then followed with a farewell to PP Garth Perkin given by JJG.

HASTE YE BACK GARTH PERKIN

Tonight PP Garth Perkin officially said fare thee well to Coolamon Rotary as Garth is going to join the e-Club of Brindabella.   Garth is planning to do some travelling over the next few months in his ute and with his two dogs.  Going bush camping!!

John Glassford gave a emotional farewell to our good friend and member of Coolamon RC for 26 years, Garth.

Garth joined the CRC in October 2000 and has been our president twice.  Garth was awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship and served as D9705 Assistant Area Governor.  Garth was on of our most active members and served on the Board for many tears and on several committees.  Garth was always one of the first to volunteer no matter what was needed.

I will remember Garth for his international service in Cambodia and in India.  In Cambodia Garth volunteered to help with a school and in India Garth joined Dr. Alok Sharma.  Alok’s project was called Darkness to Light with the RC Of Wagga Wagga.  Alok and his volunteers travel to India restoring sight to those who have cataracts and cannot afford to have the cataracts removed.

Garth has also walked the Larapinta Trek and raised funds for ShelterBox Australia.  Garth is a member of the  D9705 ShelterBox committee.

Garth was also involved in community work outside of Rotary and was a Councilor for the Coolamon Shire Council and on the Local Health Area Committee.

Here are just a few photos of Garth and his time with the CRC:

Please click on the image for a larger version:

Below are some photos of Garth and Marg who supported Garth in his many days and hours of Rotary service.

 

On a personal note I will always be grateful for Garth’s support for our Road MAPS to Africa projects.  Above all for his friendship with Susan and I over the past 23 years or so.

 

DIARY

N.B. You are always welcome to bring guests to most of our meetings, just advise Ian Jennings, 0428 492 157, if you want to bring a guest along when you respond to the weekly dinner roll call!

You can download the full programme here and note that it will change and that will be reflected in the weekly bulletin:  CRC Diary On-Line

Monday July 27th.  Normal dinner meeting.  Coolamon Sports and Recreation Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

*Monday August 3rd – Guest Speaker Jane Ross a Prosecutor.  Coolamon Sports and Recreation Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

Tuesday August 4th Wagga Wagga Netball Catering. We need volunteers and we need to provide the food.  Their canteen has all the facilities.

*Guests welcome to bring their partners and friends.

JUST FOR LAUGHS

 

All of the above photos were obtained from Facebook.  Credit to the owners.

 

ROTARY NEWS and ITEMS OF INTEREST

1.  WOLLUNDRY RC ANNUAL PHOTO COMPETITION

First Place Overall Winner

2.  From wildfires to wildflowers.

A year after the LA fires, Rotary members focus on rebuilding community and optimism

by Laura Randall

2 Jul 2026

A few weeks after last year’s Los Angeles wildfires, Claire Robinson got to work, not rebuilding her home but cleaning up scorched landscaping around the sheriff’s station in the hard-hit community of Altadena. Straightforward labor was Robinson’s way of coping and looking to the future. “I wanted to start making us feel better as a community as soon as possible, by cleaning up this civic area,” she recalls. “Volunteering was the only thing I felt like doing.”

More than a year later, the frames of hundreds of new homes are going up over the ashes, but that physical rebuilding is frustratingly slow and likely to take years. In the meantime, volunteers like Robinson are focused on an emotional rebuilding and holding on to a sense of community, tradition, and optimism.

FULL STORY HERE

 

3.  POLIO IRON LUNG’S LAST WOMAN DIES.

Martha Ann Lillard, the last known American living in an iron lung, has died at 78 after long COVID and the failure of her aging machine.

Rest in peace 

Lillard contracted polio on her fifth birthday in 1953, just two years before the first effective polio vaccine became widely available in the United States.

Within days, she could no longer breathe or move her arms and legs. Doctors placed her inside an iron lung, a large metal ventilator that used changes in air pressure to expand and contract her chest.

Lillard later regained the ability to walk, but the disease left her with a paralyzed right arm, scoliosis, and only about 25% lung capacity. She continued using the iron lung because modern respirators could not provide the breathing support she needed.

Despite those challenges, Lillard built a creative and compassionate life. She painted, wrote poetry, composed music for the left hand piano, and was remembered for helping people and rescuing abandoned animals.

In later years, post-polio syndrome caused increasing weakness and fatigue. After contracting COVID-19 twice and developing long COVID, she eventually needed the iron lung around the clock.

Keeping the decades-old machine working became increasingly difficult. Some of its parts dated to the 1940s, and her family struggled to find anyone who knew how to repair it. When a tornado caused a power outage last year, her husband kept her breathing through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until help arrived.

Lillard died on June 26. Her obituary listed long COVID as her cause of death.

 

 

JULY IS ROTARY’S  MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH MONTH

Graphics by Debbie Vance from Canada.

 

 

ROTARY CLUB OF COOLAMON Inc. 2026-2027