Contacts

Acting President: Pam Hyden

I am a single parent with two beautiful children.

Sam is 17 years old and was diagnosed with Retinablastoma at 17 months. Both eyes were enucleated by the time he was 27 months. Today he is a busy man who is doing Year 11. My other job is Student Support Coordinator at Bendigo Senior Secondary College in central Victoria.

There my role is supporting students with medically diagnosed disabilities to gain knowledge and skills as part of their educational process. Students with physical disabilities tend to do their VCE and go onto further studies. Students with Intellectual Disabilities tend to undertake the VCAL Program in order to achieve competency based skills in preparation for the workforce. I also teach VCE Foods.

I am involved in AAPVI because I do not want the isolation that I experienced to happen to other families. Technology allows us to communicate widely, and there is a wealth of information to be gleaned from those families who have gone before us.

I do not believe in ‘reinventing the wheel', so encourage all families to join and support AAPVI and share our knowledge to support others.