REDFERN: Lani McLachlan, 47, was so touched by a picture of an old handicapped Filipino in a makeshift wheelchair in faraway Leyte, the Philippines, who survived super-typhoon Hayian in the nation’s south, that she offered to send a walker-rollator she owned.
Lani had never met 63 year-old Prudencio Padayao whose picture in a wheelchair was featured in a story of a western Sydney-based Filipino-Australian monthly newspaper, Ang Kalatas.
A friend had given Lani a copy of the newspaper, and her immediate reaction of compassion was to offer a walker she had just received as a present to replace her older one.
“I think Dencio would need this newer walker more than I would,” she said.
The walker was soon collected by Filipino chef and activist Marx Canoy who was preparing to travel to Leyte on a brief rehabilitation-support mission with other Filipino-Australians.
