WHITTLESEA artist Suzi Duncan confesses she gets impatient with whingers.
The winner of this year’s Selina Sutherland Award, which acknowledges outstanding volunteers, Ms Duncan has ticked off more big dreams than most would even consider.
Becoming a wheelchair user after contracting polio as an infant hasn’t stopped her learning to fly, helping others with disabilities learn to fly, working in a refugee camp in Sudan, and climbing part way up Mount Everest.
She adds her latest tribute to a long list of honours, including an Order of Australia in 2009.
Speaking the day after being presented with the award by Yan Yean MP Danielle Green, Ms Duncan urged everyone to make the most of what they had.
“I get a little irritated when I hear people whinge about having a disability, or being badly treated because they’re a woman,” she said. “There is discrimination, but it’s up to us to get out and do things, to prove who we are and what we can achieve.”
Ms Duncan runs therapeutic arts programs and was honoured for her community work with the disadvantaged and refugees.
