Riding On Report Winter 2021

Is rheumatoid arthritis a big deal?
RA is a very serious autoimmune disease in which your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body’s tissues and causes severe joint pain, stiffness, severe fatigue and deformity.

The deformity is usually in the hands, shoulders, knees and/or feet. It attacks men, women and children of all ages and can lead to premature death.

The following donations from Ulysses Club branches and members have been received since the last published list in edition # 150 Autumn 2021. The list is in no particular order other than when received by the club.

Hobart Branch $497.40, Newcastle Lower Hunter Branch $700.00, Tweed Border Branch $400.00, Capricornia Branch $500.00, Burnett Branch $100.00, Nepean Branch $201.25, Daniel Towler $500.00, Warwick and Districts Branch $1,500.00, North West Coast Branch $500, Mike Abberfield, $25.00, Blue Mountains Branch $1,000.00, Phil Whitford $100.00, Mike Abberfield $35.00, Ken Eaton $725.00, Brisbane Branch $750.00, Gatton Branch $2,000.00, Mandurah Murray Branch $200.00. A little expansion on the donations, I was recently presented with a $1,000.00 cheque in person at my local branch meeting. 

The Blue Mountains donation is significant considering the  very small size of the branch and one that is also struggling to survive.

Animals suffer from arthritis as do humans and member Phil Whitford who has a dog with RA followed up with a $100.00
donation in addition on the night to the Blue Mountains cheque.

A much more than pleasant quarter of donations from branches and members.

Naturally we struggled during the worst of the pandemic but it seems with increased club activity your generosity abounds. As the outgoing UCARF Coordinator a heartfelt thank you for your support now and in the past.

My intentions were to retire from the ex-officio position of  UCARF Coordinator in person at the recent Ulysses Club AGM in person at the recent Ulysses Club AGM in Orange. bronchitis put paid to those intentions. However, a continuing five week serious bout of acute bronchitis put paid to those intentions.

I have served the club for 24 continuous years in various roles including branch president, national committee, national secretary, national president and the last eleven as UCARF Coordinator. It’s time to hang up the hat and in the case of UCARF give another member a go at the challenge.

I have had my eye on a suitable replacement in recent times and felt I have identified a member with their head in the right place and a genuine interest and enthusiasm for the role.

With this in mind I recommended Ian (Foggy) Winter UC#53026 TM#59 to the national committee to take on the role and in turn received a strong endorsement.

In my last UCARF report I would like to introduce Ian to the members.

QUARTERLY RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS QU0TE:

It never occurred to me that one day I would be sick with rheumatoid arthritis and never get better.

Kim Kennerson
UCARF Coordinator,
#6929 L.M. 14.

A word from Foggy 

Hello to all the Ulysses Club Inc members across Australia,
It filled me with both pride and dread when Kim approachedme about taking over the Coordinators role from him. He is a big man with even bigger fill and regardless of what I thought and doubts I have of my own ability, I knew I would say yes. The meaning behind UCARF has been with me from my earliest days with the club as I was fortunate to meet and chat with Ole #1 at the Newcastle AGM (my first) Extended Natcom meeting. He made such an impression on me in those few minutes that I had with him whilst waiting for Alexa to return from parking the car I knew I had found my forever club!
I received such an insight from Stephen on the clubs founding, UCARF and what it means. And the impressive part is that I had all this implanted into my head in minutes. Over the preceding years I have learnt that this man had a way about him and it seems that I received both barrels because look where I am now.

I am proudly aligned to the LOCKYER BRANCH in Queensland and I am hoping that a lot of you may have had to stand thru some of my speeches after the Grand Parades when the Jo Dearnley and Good Joint Awards are presented. The Lockyer Branch has the honour to have been presented both these awards multiple times for our contributions to UCARF thanks to our Annual Ipswich Toy Run and I have been pushed forward (didn’t take much either) to receive them on behalf of our Branch.

My journey with the Ulysses Club Inc started in 2009 by joining the Lockyer Branch and has been full of activity since then. 
Welfare Officer, Secretary, President, Treasurer and Newsletter Editor. Coordinator of the Toy Run a few times and always on the committees of anything the Branch gets up to. In SE Queensland I’ve been involved with just about everything from the resurrection of the President Meetings (2011?), uniting of @18 branches in our Cartwheel rides and to the maintenance of our special Memorial Gardens at Somerset Dam for all Ulyssians and officiating the yearly service in September. A lot of these activities are beneficial to UCARF (along with other charities) and I feel it was meant for me to move into taking over from Kim with this focus.

In closing, I give you my promise that I will do everything I can to always promote UCARF during my tenure and will carry on the work setup by Kim and the University Researchers in seeking a cure/preventative to the “insidious” disease we know as Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Yours faithfully

Ian ‘Foggy’ Winter
UC#53026 TM#59