A paraplegic man raising money to support people with spinal injuries will this week arrive in Naracoorte as part of a 66-day journey around Australia on a specially fitted-out scooter.
Bevan Kearsley from Greenslopes, in Queensland, had a motorcycle crash in 1992 that left him with permanent spinal injuries.
After visiting a rehabilitation site in Brisbane recently, he decided to fundraise for a better rehabilitation service for spinal injury patients.
"I was asked to come along to the spinal unit, which happened to be the same one I went through 30 years ago to do a little talk on my life," Mr Kearsley said.
"After being there I found after 30 years nothing has changed.
"Spinal patients have still got to go through their whole rehabilitation, which can be anywhere from six months to two years living in a hospital ward away from their family."
Mr Kearsley started his journey from Queensland on April 26 and hoped to reach Naracoorte in South Australia's south-east by Friday.
The 66-day journey is raising money to help build a new rehabilitation centre for spinal stroke and brain injury patients.
"The rehab centre we want to build will have accommodation for families and the spinal patient can be taken out of the hospital ward into a rehab centre where they're taking up a bed," Mr Kearsley said.
The fundraiser has a $1 million goal and has raised $3,000 raised so far.
An electrical fault on the vehicle caused slight delays to Mr Kearsley's journey but he hoped to be back on the road tomorrow.
Living with a disability
Mr Kearsley now works as an access and advocacy officer with Spinal Life Australia.
"It was a massive change when you have such a young family as well. It just put a whole new perspective on everything," he said.
"I guess I was brought up in an era if you fall off a horse, get up, brush yourself off and get back on the horse, so I guess that's the way I looked at it.
"It was a speed bump in the road of life rather than a dead end."
Mr Kearsley's 150cc motor scooter wheelchair was purchased in 2008.
"I was always thinking there's still got to be something that can get you around and back on a type of motorbike," he said.
"I did some Google searching and found this bike and once I got on it, it was quite pleasant.
"It originally was a scooter but it's been converted into a trike … and it has a ramp on the back, which I can just wheel up into in my wheelchair."
Mr Kearsley's journey can be followed on Instagram.
