Park Fi Lled With Faces of Those Failed by The System: Gift of Blood Puts Vanessa On The Road To A Better Quality of Life

COMMUNITY
Park filled with faces of those failed by the system

By Ashlee Betteridge
Annandale painter, sculptor and

printmaker Susan Dorothea White is
using pencils and paintbrushes in the
fight against the State Government’s
closure of Rozelle Hospital.
Ms White’s works have adorned
galleries around Australia and
in New York, Amsterdam and
Cologne.
But her sketches lampooning
the State Government’s treatment
of the mentally ill have been doing
the rounds of the peninsula on post-
cards, urging the public to oppose
the closure of Rozelle Hospital and
the draft land use plan which would
see Sydney University increase its
campus at Callan Park.
Ms White is also putting together
a sculptural assemblage work, which
was on display during April’s Callan
Park protests, to highlight the fail-
ings of the mental health system.
The Faces in the Park work
consists of white plates on stakes.
Community members can draw a suffered neglect and have lost their reconciliation. Brian Freeman and Susan Dorothea
face or write a name on the plates lives uneccessarily,” Ms White said. “Anyone can colour a plate and White with part of a sculptural
to represent a person who has been Ms White said that she wanted get involved, it’s a collaborative memorial in Callan Park which is
failed by the mental health system. to move the work around to differ- community work,” she said. dedicated to those who have lost
“This project is to draw attention ent locations, similar to the way cut- For more information visit www. their lives due to a lack of mental
to the number of people who have outs of hands were used to promote susandwhite.com.au. health support.
Gift of blood puts Vanessa on the road to a better quality of life

By Katie Hoskins “My thumb just wouldn’t work,” cantly lessened, enabling her to live
Vanessa Rowland is proudly showing she said. life to the full.
off her new bicycle which she plans “I couldn’t extend it, and noticed It takes approximately 850 blood
to ride to work in the city from her I had difficulty doing up buttons and donations each year to allow Vanessa
Lilyfield home. putting a cassette in the tape play- to have her life-altering treatments.
Fitness kicks like this are com- er.” “I am very appreciative of the peo-
mon to many of us but for Vanessa, By the time her condition was di- ple who donate blood,” she said.
the simple activity of gripping the agnosed in 1995, the muscle weak- Prior to her diagnosis, Vanessa
handlebars of her bike would not be ness was worsening and had spread was a blood donor herself.
achievable without the Red Cross to her entire left hand, leaving it “I donated for the same reason
Blood Service. with little capability. that most blood donors do, I was one
Vanessa, a human resources She began intravenous immu- of the healthy non-risk people.
professional, suffers from a rare noglobulin (IVIG) blood product “Most people are aware of the
condition called Multifocal Motor treatment, which calms the over- need to give blood but get caught in
Neuropathy, which is thought to oc- activity of the immune system. the day-to-day stuff. If you have the
cur as a result of the body’s immune “I got short term function back in ability to give blood and can make
system attacking its nerve cells. my left hand immediately,” she said. the time, make time.”
The disease leads the muscles to “The impact was quite dramatic.” • Australia needs 21,000 blood dona-
become progressively weak, some- Because Vanessa receives the tions per week and in the next ten
times wasting completely. The blood treatment every six weeks, years this figure is predicted to double.
Vanessa Rowland with the bike she is symptoms began to manifest for the muscle deterioration that she To give blood go to www.donateblood.
planning to ride to work. Vanessa almost 20 years ago. would otherwise suffer has signifi- com.au or call 13 14 95.
22 Village Voice Balmain May

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COMMUNITY

Park ﬁlled with faces of those failed by the system

Annandale painter, sculptor and

Gift of blood puts Vanessa on the road to a better quality of life

22 Village Voice Balmain May

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