Maroubra's Gentle Giant Given Second Chance at Life

From first grade rugby league player to hospital patient fighting renal failure, gentle giant Chris Enahoro has had to tackle massive health challenges while battling to follow his chosen path as a professional athlete.

Throughout his adult life, the 40-year-old former Souths centre has been plagued by kidney disease. It was diagnosed shortly before his 18th birthday, when his legs swelled up with fluid.

“The boys were calling me Elephant Man,” Mr Enahoro told The Beast, “It was pretty distressing.”

Since then, he has been in and out of hospital, while maintaining a career as a rugby player in NSW and Queensland, and then, in more recent years, as a personal trainer.

A few years ago, Mr Enahoro was due to receive a kidney transplant after his sister Elizabeth agreed to donate one of hers. Then, at the last minute, the specialists ruled the organ wasn’t a perfect match, which meant more dialysis and relentless medication regimes.

“At one stage I was on 18 tablets in the morning and 17 at night,” he recounted.

And all of the medication that Mr Enahoro required had terrible side-effects.

“I’ve had shingles, an abscess on my neck, pneumonia - just about every complication you could think of.”

At one point, Mr Enahoro’s strapping 195cm (6'5) frame ballooned in weight and he put on 35 kilograms. But he maintained a strict training regime, which helped him to shed the flab and stood him in good stead in his early thirties when he retired from professional rugby and moved on to his new career as a personal trainer (he now runs Training Collective in Potts Point).

Mr Enahoro credits his partner Megan as being instrumental in helping him survive his health dramas. The pair married in 2013 and have two daughters, 7-year-old Thea and 4-year-old Matilda.

But it is an anonymous person from Western Australia who, probably more than anyone, has played the most pivotal role in his survival.

On May 11 this year, Mr Enahoro received a phone call from St Vincent’s Hospital, which has been his home away from home throughout his illness. A kidney from a deceased donor was available. Was he in good health, with no hint of COVID or other issues, and could he come in immediately? Yes, yes and yes.

Only hours later, after multiple blood tests, X-rays and dialysis, Mr Enahoro was on the operating table. Wielding the scalpel was renal transplant specialist Professor Jacob Sevastos. The operation took six hours and was ultimately successful, with Mr Enahoro making a swift recovery.

“The very next day, I could smell better, see better and generally felt like a new person,” he told The Beast.

A keen surfer, Mr Enahoro is eager to get back in the water and try out the two custom Sparrow boards he received from his mates shortly before the transplant. But for now, he’s happy to take it easy on the sidelines, sitting on the Maroubra Beach steps as he waits for the 24-staple operation scar across his lower belly to heal.

But the healing process is not just a physical one. There’s also been an overflow of emotion.

“I’ve cried every day since the operation,” Mr Enahoro told The Beast

“I’m so grateful for the love and unwavering support from my mates and the community. It’s really helped me stay positive through some dark times.”

“I have to isolate for the next few months, but I can’t wait to give them all a big hug and thank them. I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life.”

Planning Panels vs The People

The wheels are starting to turn again for the redevelopment of the Bronte Surf Club, but no one seems to know which way they are turning.

After much deliberation and multiple objections from the local community over the initial design, as well as a follow-up plan from the same architect that was never released to the public, a new design concept by a local architectural firm was shared with - and ultimately endorsed by - key stakeholders.

In reference to this design, the August 2022 edition of The Beast reported, “...the latest design appears to have ticked all the boxes, with both the local community and Waverley Council agreeing the new concept design is a winner.”

But now the process is being stymied by a bureaucratic labyrinth of planning panels that want to take things in a different direction.

In an email sent to members in May, Bronte Surf Club explained, “We are liaising with, and responding to the Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel and the Design Excellence Advisory Panel (DEAP) feedback and requests for further information to address a number of design issues.”

Sydney and regional planning panels were introduced by the NSW Government in 2009 to “strengthen decision-making for regionally significant development applications.” Council is required to go to this panel on the basis that it can’t approve its own proposal, i.e. to avoid a conflict of interest.

As for the DEAP, Waverley Council’s website explains that, “The Waverley Design Excellence Advisory Panel undertakes reviews of development applications ... and provides advice to Council staff regarding the design quality and excellence of a proposal.”

This panel is made up of a pool of professionals, independent of Council, with expertise in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and heritage.

The need to go to this panel is triggered by design departures from the planning controls as laid out in the Bronte Plan of Management (POM). The design that was endorsed by the community only had minor departures from the POM controls.

As part of its feedback on the Bronte Surf Club plans, the DEAP says it expects the new building to be “world class.” Whatever that means is any- body’s guess, as all the community wants is a workable surf club and a building that provides what the community needs - not an exclusive club like those at many of our other local beaches.

As part of their response to the panel’s feedback, both the surf club and Waverley Council, though the Project Control Group (PCG), have expanded the contracted team to include a specialist planning consultant and enlisted the help of architects Warren and Mahoney, who were recently involved in the completion of the Mona Vale Surf Club and Council Amenities. The group is now liaising with the various panels to iron out a number of the issues.

“We are still working towards a determination of our DA towards the end of August/ September, and anticipate the additional specialist resources will help us to achieve a positive outcome,” a Bronte Surf Club spokesperson told The Beast.

“That being said, the DA process is active and fluid and we are in the hands of the planning authorities. This is a finely balanced project, within which the PCG are at all times taking into account, and making fair and balanced representation for, club needs, community concerns and Council requirements, within a rigorous application review process involving numerous State Government planning panels to bring this together.”

“We are excited for what the future holds for the club and look forward to a new sustainable building that meets the needs of Council, contemporary surf lifesaving and the wider community.” n t o w i n t e r , f l u s e a s o n i s w e l l a n d t r u l y t h a n e v e r , i t ’ s i m p o r t a n t t o p r o t e c t o u r f a m i l y f r o m t h e i n f l u e n z a v i r u s e c t i o n f r o m i n f l u e n z a i s t o g e t a a c h y e a r V a c c i n a t i o n i s a v a i l a b l e t o n t h s a n d o l d e r , a s l o n g a s t h e y d o n ’ t a l r e a s o n t h a t p r e v e n t s t h e m f r o m y h a v i n g a f l u s h o t , y o u a l s o h e l p t o a r o u n d y o u w h o a r e p a r t i c u l a r l y i t s l o w s t h e s p r e a d o f t h e v i r u s . a l i s c u r r e n t l y o f f e r i n g f l u v a c c i n a t i o n s B o o k y o u r a p p o i n t m e n t t o d a y ! w w w b r o n t e m e d i c a l c o m P h : 0 2 9 3 8 9 4 4 2 2

Another problem is the project’s cost, which is now estimated at around $13 million. The building will be funded by a Federal Government grant of $2 million and a State Government grant of $300,000, with the remainder to be contributed by Waverley Council, the surf club and additional grants.

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