Every year for nine years, Wingham’s Sue Green has gone through the harrowing experience of reliving her son’s horrific accident and its aftermath, when she addresses year 11 students through the Rotary Youth Driving Awareness (RYDA) program.
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Sue and her son Todd tell their sobering story to 600-700 students of high schools from Taree, Wingham, Gloucester, Forster-Tuncurry and Bulahdelah, every year. Their aim is to save other families going through what they went through.
For this reason Sue was awarded the highest accolade that Rotary can give – a Paul Harris Fellowship – at the Rotary Club of Taree’s annual changeover this year.
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It’s not the first for the family – Todd received the same award two years ago for his part in RYDA.
Sue, Todd and recently retired Dr Colin Rose OAM present, as part of the RYDA program, “After the Accident.”
Nine years ago Todd, at 22 years of age, was involved in an accident in Wingham that left him deeply unconscious and on life support for three weeks. He was a passenger in the vehicle. The driver died on the scene.
It’s a pretty fantastic community service that these two people have provided.
- Dr Colin Rose
“Sue tells the story of the night they were notified. They went down to the site and when they rounded the corner and saw the car wedged up underneath the truck, one dead, the parents of the dead boy there, and all the police and everything, they never dreamt that they’d get their son out alive,” Dr Rose said.
Emergency services had to cut Todd out of the car. He was transported to Manning Base Hospital, where Sue, and her husband Trevor, were able to see him briefly. Todd was then airlifted to John Hunter hospital. His parents drove down, not knowing whether they’d find him dead or alive when they arrived.
“He had 18 months before he returned home, still very disabled in terms of memory,” Dr Rose said.
“When Todd first started with this program nine years ago, he was wheeled into the students in a wheelchair. Sue held the mic at his mouth and he was able to tell them in a fairly sort of broken way what happened.
“He’s now back driving again, he walks extremely well, he’s living in his own house supported with some domestic support and things, and he is working three days a week at Valley Industries. So his recovery has been nothing short of miraculous. It’s been quite remarkable.
“Having said that, Sue has been with him throughout this journey. She hasn’t worked from the day of the accident to the present time except working looking after her son and getting him back,” Dr Rose said.
“She is able to eyeball the year 11 children and recounts meeting other young people and their families down there (at John Hunter) who die. There are others who are transferred to nursing homes and she tries to give them some indication of what it must be like for families to have a young person in a nursing home for the rest of their lives.”
Sue doesn’t just talk about the medical and physical struggles over the years, but the effects it has had on other areas of their lives.
“Sue tells the story, without any sense of being critical, how his friends disappeared – they didn’t know how to cope with a different person, and that was part and parcel of her hurt,” Dr Rose said.
Todd was engaged to be married at the time of the accident. That relationship did not survive, either.
“And Sue’s been there for him all the time. That’s why we felt as a club we should recognise Sue. She wasn’t ready to receive recognition a couple of years ago when Todd did, and she’s still saying ‘look, this is Todd’s story, not mine’. But I’m afraid we put our foot down!” Dr Rose said.
Julia Driscoll
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
