OCTOBER 31, 2017 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
NEWS + SPORT + THE WEST’S BEST PROPERTY GUIDE Five-month old Noah Acreman has endured more challenges in his short life than many. The little boy suffered breathing difficulties at four weeks of age and was admitted to the Royal Children’s Hospital. He was diagnosed with pneumonia and then two days later he was also diagnosed with bronchiolitis. Noah’s condition improved, however on the day his parents took him home, a shock diagnoses changed their lives forever. Noah has cystic fibrosis. “I didn’t even know what cystic fibrosis was, let alone know I was a carrier,” Noah’s mother Ebony Acreman said. “It was the shock of my life.” The Sunshine West infant faces a life of treatments, medications, physiotherapy and frequent hospitalisations. Cystic fibrosis is the most common, inherited, life-threatening condition affecting young Australians. It primarily affects the lungs and digestive system. Despite major advances in treatment, the average life expectancy for someone born with cystic fibrosis is 37 years. Ms Acreman says the past five months have been challenging but the support she’s received from Cystic Fibrosis Community Care has been overwhelming. In an effort to give back and help raise awareness of the condition, Ms Acreman and 40 of her family and friends joined more than 1800 other participants in the Great Strides fun run held at The Tan in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens on Sunday. Ms Acreman and ‘Team Noah’ raised more than $5500 for Cystic Fibrosis Community Care.
(Dennis Manktelow)
Stepping up for Noah
EBONY AND NOAH ACREMAN
Tate Papworth
Cash splash for centres By Tate Papworth The St Albans Leisure Centre is set for a $50 million makeover. While plans are still in their infancy, Brimbank mayor John Hedditch said upgrades were long overdue. “The much-needed redevelopment of the St Albans Leisure Centre provides the council with an exciting opportunity to not only deliver a new leisure and community facility, but to also maximise community health and wellbeing
be known around June 2019. It is estimated this cost will be in excess of $50 million.” Cr Hedditch said the council had also begun the planning process to redevelop the Sunshine Leisure Centre. “I think the CEO would tell you that St Albans Leisure Centre is pretty well our highest priority. “It is falling apart and there is a need to rebuild it. “However, there is a need to future-proof the Sunshine Leisure Centre. “There’s a lot of population growth to come here, and when Sunshine Leisure Centre was
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built 10 years ago, the gym was built too small and the water space wasn’t sufficient, so there is a whole future-proofing master planning approach for Sunshine to go on to make it a better, more accessible leisure centre.” The council has approved $70,000 for a master plan to cover both centres. It will also consider a proposal to change the management model of the centres. “We are considering a joint management model across both centres supported by agreed service standards, customer and community feedback, industry benchmarking and regular evaluation,” Cr Hedditch said.
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“We’ve spent the best part of the last year working with the community and industry experts to look at ways to address the issues raised by the community.” As a result of that consultation the council will consider trialling longer opening hours for the Sunshine centre outdoor pool; improving the learn-to-swim programs; offering more swimming lessons; and introducing three hours free parking at the Brimbank multi-deck carpark which neighbours the Sunshine Leisure Centre. ■ Mayor
reflects on first term: Page 11
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