Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Brain Injury Awareness Week was held recently. In fact, it was from 21 to 27 August. In an opinion piece in the Mercury, the Hobart paper, the executive officer of the Brain Injury Association of Tasmania, Deb Byrne, used the occasion to pay tribute to long-term member Alf Archer. I also take this opportunity to pay tribute to Mr Archer and the amazing contribution that he made to brain injury awareness.

Mr Archer died on 3 August this year. He was only 53. He acquired his brain injury crashing his car at high speed in October 1994. Since the early 2000s and up until his death Mr Archer used his experience to educate school and college students on the challenges of living with a brain injury and the importance of prevention. He was the key presenter in the crash investigator information sessions run as part of the Rotary Youth Driver Awareness, RYDA, program, a contribution for which he was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship.

Mr Archer spent 21 years serving the Brain Injury Association of Tasmania. I had the honour of meeting him as a regular attendee at their events. He had a friendly personality and a great sense of humour. He injected this humour into his RYDA presentations, but behind the humour Mr Archer struggled with daily living and he expressed on more than one occasion a wish that he had died in the crash, in the belief that it would have been easier on him and his family.

I honour Alf Archer's commitment to spreading an important message that we should all heed: that acquired brain injury is permanent, it's debilitating and in many cases it's preventable. Throughout almost two decades, Mr Archer imparted this message to thousands of students, and I hope it prompted many of them to think of their driving and other risk-taking behaviour. Vale, Alf Archer, and thank you.