Published on AngelaVithoulkas.com.au July 14, 2017.
From a corporate career in the bus industry to founding and leading Good360, Alison’s highs and lows recently touched Brew listeners who gained an insight into the illness that left her near death and her inspiring fight back from the brink.
As a woman, when you get to a certain age, it’s not uncommon to stop, look, and pinch yourself; great job, husband, kids, and financial security. But what happens if you wake up one day and your health condition stops your life in its tracks?
Alison’s career as the Managing Director of a major company buying buses across Sydney came to a halt when she began experiencing blurred vision and a loss of senses. After many doctors’ visits and an insurmountable amount of pain, she was subsequently diagnosed with Cerebral Vasculitis. Treatment involved chemotherapy and other hard-core drugs that meant Alison could no longer work and was barely able to look after her young children.
The way back from such a severe illness is not without its hurdles and for Alison it took “5 years of fighting to be me again”.
After Alison became well again, she didn’t want to go back to the corporate world. She wanted to do something better with her time because she believed that there “must have been a reason that she survived” her illness.
It was an email newsletter from the charitable organisation Good360 USA that sparked the thought that there was no organisation in Australia facilitating the provision of goods via charities in the same way.
Armed with her past corporate experience, dealing with international contracts, franchises and more she realised she had the perfect “box of skills” to start Good360 Australia.
Her target to distribute $1 billion worth of goods to Australians in need is setting the bar high, but if Alison’s past history of overcoming challenges is anything to go by, there is no doubt that we will exceed that target before too long.
Listen to the podcast to find out more about Good360 Australia, its major corporate partners, and Alison’s story.
