Ambassador - Ross Pearson

Life changed for Ross Pearson in January 2001

Ross suffered a life threatening stroke when he arrive home from a tandem bike ride with his partner.

The cerebral haemorrhage in the left side of his brain left him with some significant deficits - paralysis and numbness  of the right side of his body, loss of 30 per cent of his vision, lack of speech for two weeks, loss of memory and balance and epilepsy. The future looked challenging.

After months of rehabilitation Ross was discharged from hospital, the first step on the road to an uncertain recovery. He realised his career as a cabinetmaker for architects and designers would be on hold, perhaps forever.

It took consistent rehabilitation over six months to finally repay Ross’s efforts with his first successful bike ride after the stroke.

Still troubled by his own lack of awareness of stroke and the potentially deadly results, Ross decided to take an unusual journey to raise awareness of stroke and help others become a little more stroke safe.

He embarked on a year long tandem bicycle ride around Australia, cycling a total of 18,000 kilometres. Throughout the journey, Ross visited local hospitals and community groups to raise awareness of stroke and met with fellow stroke survivors to offer hope and encourage others to follow their dreams.