John Dabrowski

I'm taking on Steptember! Will you please show your support?

I'm doing Steptember for Cerebral Palsy Alliance — the challenge is 10,000 steps a day, every day of September.

Full disclosure: I walk a lot anyway. This just means the steps count for something other than wearing out boots.

Here's the bit I actually care about. I work for CPA, and I know exactly how that sounds. Everyone's contractually obliged to say nice things about their employer. But most of us have done the trip to head office, sat through the nonsense, and driven home feeling like we needed a shower. Not this mob. Every time I'm at Allambie Heights or the Hunter centre I see the same thing — infants getting the right care early, parents spoken to like adults instead of case numbers, and toddlers who've just been fitted with the right gear absolutely tearing across the floor, laughing, at a speed nobody was sure they'd ever get to.

That's what the money does. Early detection and therapy in the first 1,000 days, when it counts most.

Working alongside people with CP has changed how I do my job and, if I'm honest, how I am the rest of the time. Empathy first, everything else after. I'm better for it.

You're under no obligation to give me a cent. If you do, it's tax deductible over two bucks and it lands somewhere that genuinely uses it properly. If you can't, just pass it on — it only has to reach the right person.