workforce
Then in the afternoon when we
reached camp, one of the other
trekkers, a lovely young girl, Cassandra,
said: “Are you missing your family and
your kids?”
I just burst into tears and said: “Yes!”
So I was quite emotional that day. It
was the halfway point. I thought, well,
I’ve just got to keep moving forward.
That was probably my toughest day
mentally. But apart from that, I look
back and go, wow, I did that without
too much difficulty.
Before leaving for Papa New Guinea,
you said the journey of the Australian
soldiers and their Papuan allies
who walked the trail wasn’t all that
different to the experiences of those
with dementia. In what ways are the
two journeys similar?
Based on my limited knowledge on
Kokoda and the reading I’ve done over
the years – the Australian soldiers were
in foreign terrain, and the visibility was
often impaired by torrential rain and
cloud cover. Of course, they didn’t have
head lamps or head torches like we
did on our trek. They were working in
terrible conditions – mud up to their
knees and even higher.
In my experience with looking after
people living with dementia and their
carers, it’s foreign territory for them
too. Sometimes they don’t know where
they’re going, even though it might have
been something familiar that they’ve
done all their lives, but they’ve lost that
ability to recognise what they need to
do or their thoughts are impaired due to
their dementia.
That’s just my basic correlation
between what Australian soldiers did
in that terrain and people living with
dementia.
You completed the trek only recently,
but how do you look back on the
experience?
Yes, you’re right. I only got back on
Wednesday night last week. It was
awesome. I feel very honoured that I was
given this opportunity through Lifeview
Residential Care to raise awareness and
funds for Alzheimer’s Australia.
It was just an amazing journey, both
personally and, I suppose, professionally.
I had an opportunity to do a little bit
of nursing on the trek with our guide
because some of our porters had cuts
and abrasions on their feet. I was able to
Pettenon and Van Beek with the trailer that was raffled to raise funds. Photo: Lifeview
Photo: Sarah Pettenon
support Steve, the guide, with dressing
their wounds. I felt very privileged that I
was able to give something back to our
wonderful porters.
It’s still not even a week since I’ve been
back, but yeah, it was awesome. It was
just absolutely amazing. I’ve walked the
Kokoda Trail. It’s incredible.
Walking the Kokoda Trail can be
dangerous. What made it worth the
risk for you?
Dementia is now the second leading
cause of death in Australia. I’m hoping
that through this experience, and the
publicity around raising awareness and
funds for Alzheimer’s Australia, that
we continue to talk about dementia
and about enabling people living with
dementia to live a quality-filled life, and
that we continue to provide further
support to their carers, and to create
communities where we are not afraid to
talk about dementia and to allow people
to live in their communities with all the
right support networks.
Dementia is not going to go away. It’s
only going to become more and more
prevalent.
People living with dementia deserve to
have a life that is positive, enabling and
quality-filled. ■
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