It’s been a quiet few weeks as Matthew has recovered from his surgery. He was a bit more tired than he expected, so has been taking things a little easier than usual. As usual in this journey, he’s had some lows and highs.

One low was that Matthew’s application for a service or assistance dog was knocked back. We’re not too sure really as to detail behind the reason, but we were all a bit sad about this. However, I (Kate) am now hoping to convince Matthew to adopt a greyhound and train it to assist. Knowing our greyhound ‘Hamish’, Matt’s a bit sceptical of the dog being able to do much more than warm a couch. If anyone has any other suggestions or knowledge in how to go about accessing assistance dogs, please let us know, because we may try again in the future.

On the high side, we celebrated Ben’s first communion last weekend, which was a lovely occasion as part of a wider community and another milestone to celebrate. Matthew also met with faculty staff at UQ to discuss possible opportunities for guest lecturing in environmental engineering, which is something he’s excited about.

Rachel has been busy working with some fantastic people who are organising some fundraising events over the next month. First off the blocks is the Holland Park Hawks Charity Auction this Friday. There are just a couple of tickets left at this stage:

Our sincere thanks to Len Catalano for organising this. It should be a great night.

The ‘Renovating Matthew Ball’, being organised by the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, is being held on Friday 6 September, and so far we’ve sold around 240 tickets, but we’re looking at filling a ballroom. Details of this are on the Fundraising events page if you’re interested and haven’t yet purchased a ticket.

Matthew is really humbled by the efforts of people to help, and is looking forward to having the opportunity to meet a few more people over the next few weeks. We’ll keep you posted.