Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I met an inspiring young man named Luke Webb. Luke cycled 108 kilometres from the Big Merino in Goulburn to here, the steps of Parliament House, where I met him. It was six long and tiring hours cycling for a very important cause. Luke rode all the way to give me this petition, signed by 11,000 people, as part of the National Stroke Foundation's Fight Stroke campaign. It was not easy, but it was nothing compared to what Luke has been through. A year and a half ago, at the age of just 20, Luke had a stroke. It was triggered by a plane trip where he got deep vein thrombosis.

It shows that stroke does not discriminate, it can happen to anyone. It is the second biggest killer in Australia after heart disease. It kills more women than breast cancer and more men than prostate cancer. One in six people will get a stroke in their lifetime, one every 10 minutes, and one of those people was Luke.

Today I am honouring a promise I made to him to table this petition in the House of Representatives. Like the 11,000 people who signed this petition, I urge the government and I urge the parliament to do more to fight stroke. I seek leave to table this document.

Leave granted.