Ben Williams Story so far
Born in 1967, Numurkah, Victoria, Australia being the fourth child to parents Allan & Bev Williams.
At the age of 13 months he was injured in a car accident leaving him a T3 Paraplegic. After spending time at the Austin Hospital recovering and his parents getting ready for what was to come, He returned home to his family farm at Yalca South to resume his life with his parents, 3 brothers, Ashley, Richard, Warren and and sister Julie.
The accident not only left Ben as a paraplegic but his mother, Bev with a fractured skull and brother Warren being born 3 days later and sister Julie with a scared face. Needless to say his mother Bev would have had her hands full.
Ben's parents where determined to bring Ben up with the family and as much as possible a normal life and its this up bringing that he would not let his disability determine his life. He attended the Yalca South Primary School then the Numurkah Comprehensive High School.
Ben knowing his limitation he never thought of a life returning to the diary farm that he was brought up on, followed what he was interested in, he attended Goulburn Valley College of TAFE enrolling in Office & Secretarial Studies course. At the end of the year he got his first job in the library at the college, after 9 months he was on his way to the Goulburn Valley Base Hospital Supply Department getting their computer system up and running, hundreds of stock items to enter.
Being brought up on the farm and being taught by his father the value of private enterprise, at the age of 20 he enter one of his biggest project. Partitioning the Supreme Court to release his compensation from the accident early, he bought a business in Shepparton, JD Office Supplies and a unit for himself. When the compensation was awarded to him the law was he could not get access to it until he was 21, however the law changed and now people could access it at the age of 18.
The first couple of years of business, Ben was very successful, doubling the turn over, then the recession that we had to have of 1990, took its toll on the area, which lead to Ben going bankrupt.
Some time after that he became the State President of the Victorian Young Farmers.
The next year Ben headed to Melbourne where he got into Swinburne University for Bachelor of Business. At the end of the first year, sick of having no money. Ben started looking for a job over Christmas break. He ended up with 2 part time jobs. One being the State Secretary to the Victorian Young Farmers for 20 hours per week and the other being Telstra, 28 hours per week. Working 6 days a week, he deferred his uni and latter attempted to return but it was to much.
21 years later he is still at Telstra, buying his house in Wheelers Hill. Over the years he had many people through his house renting a room of him and becoming good friends.
He has had many roles in Telstra and has been at the Global Operations Center (GOC) for more than 10 years. Currently he works in the Change and External Plant team being responsible for planned events, the permanent repair of Optic Fibre faults and External Plant Radio faults.
2007 Ben was trading the Australian Options market and made a bucket load of money. He took his long service leave at Telstra and annual leave he accrued and spent 5 months in
Spain, France and Portugal by himself in 2008. Determined not to see winter after suffering from phenomena the year before. Departing in April 2008 and returning just in time to make his brother Warren 40th in August. He hired a car from London that was equipped with hand controls and drove himself around, quickly learning to drive on the other side of the road.
Being broke again after returning from Spain, Ben looked for a project that he could get involved with and not cost an anything. He made a call to his Aunty Marj and started upon his family history. In years to come he organised family reunions for the Williams side of the family, taking up what was already going for 25 years. Then turning his interest to his mothers side researched the Campbell family till they came out to Australia and organising a reunion at Kynten and Woodend.
A couple of months before the Campbell reunion, Ben snapped his bicep muscle putting his wheelchair into his car, on his way to work, looking at the time, "Oh Shit I am going to be late" was his thoughts. Sucking the pain up he made his way to work. Not many words wore spoken that day - Yep, no, ok. Making it home at the end of the day his doctor was summonsed, the next day down to get a ultrasound and x ray confirmed what he doctor told him, he had broken his bicep muscle.
46 years of pushing
my wheelchair around has taken its toll on his shoulder. While the initial pain has gone, He has lost
a lot of strength in his arm and the muscle will not heal without surgery, taking
him out of action for 3 months. His doctor
told him this is common for ‘old bastards’ who have been in wheelchairs for a long
time. His advice was to get a new
vehicle where he can drive from his wheelchair, taking a bit of strain of his shoulders.
Since then he have done a lot of research into what vehicles
are available and the costs. Oh my God
did I say costs?? I will share some of
the options he has looked at. So you can see why he has chosen
this option.
The best option he has come across is a Volkswagen Transport
from Capital Special Vehicles in Dandenong.
They completely modify the van to his needs. Getting into the van has a hydraulic lift on
the side and it tucks nicely under the van when finished. The driver’s seat is removed and he can drive
straight into the space. He would need a
new wheelchair, that will work with the docking station device to lock the
wheelchair in. There is also a back support which stops the
wheelchair from tipping backwards in the event of a head on accident. This vehicle has a lot of safety features, which
others fail to deliver, however they come with a cost – the van all up would
cost over $150,000 from the quote he has received in June 2015 and then the new
wheelchair would cost $6,000.
The van will give Ben the independence the continue working and perform his day to day needs of shopping and getting about.
Below is a video from Capital Special Vehicles, they use for promotion. The above photo has the hydraulic lift.
