Liz Dawson was told cancer would take her life, then temporal arteritis stole her eyesight with lighting speed, leaving her blind overnight. But this remarkable woman wasn’t finished yet.
Even with the slightest of vision – just four percent in one eye – Liz continued to work tirelessly on community projects that would make a difference to many lives.When faced with a future measured in months, not years, she wrote a book that would help others in similar situations.
It offers a helpful, practical guide to people with impaired vision and bleak outlooks for the future, as well as their family and friends. It confronts difficult topics head on and gives advice from many perspectives.
The indefatigable Liz Dawson, OAM, has since passed, but her campaign continues through her work.
She was well-known in the ACT; a former teacher, she successfully lobbied for a reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio in ACT schools. As a tireless worker in the community, she was the driving force behind Common Ground, an initiative to provide permanent supported housing for homeless people, and thus aid them in getting their lives and employment prospects back on track. She was also the driving force behind three dental care programs for disadvantaged people in the territory.