Life dedicated to helping others
ANGEL by name and an angel by nature.
I know that Leanne Angel will be a little embarrassed by me taking the liberty to start her story with those words, but I can think of no better way than that to begin.
Her story like many others I have written for this column centres on her love for community and her efforts to make Canungra a better place for all.
Born in Penrith, Sydney Leanne started her life working for the Westpac Bank, travelling five days a week on the red rattler to the bank’s city office.
It was a holiday at the Gold Coast that made her realise that Queensland was a far better place to live and she returned back to western Sydney in the 80’s with her resignation letter in her pocket.
She remained in the banking sector moving around the state before settling back on the Glitter Strip with her new husband Dwain Sullivan.
It was with the Bendigo Bank that Leanne first got the chance to help community groups when she was appointed as the sponsorship manager for Queensland.
“In that time I overviewed many requests and saw first hand the great voluntary work that was happening everyday and everywhere,” she said.
“My role was to assess the most needy requests and put forward a compelling case to get funds for them.”
Her working credentials turned out to be a perfect fit for her next role with LifeFlight on the Gold Coast.
Created by a community of passionate locals, LifeFlight was just a small grassroots regional emergency helicopter service when she first joined.
Today they lead the way in emergency rescue, protection, and retrieval medicine with nine bases throughout Queensland and Singapore and a medical staff of more than 180.
”LifeFlight’s commitment has always been to serve the community in their greatest moments of need and I have been honoured to have helped in a small way towards their amazing growth over the past 22 years,” Leanne proudly said.
“I worked originally as their sponsorship manager and I am now LifeFlight’s Head of Community.”
“I have never lost my enthusiasm for my role with such a dynamic organisation and I still have a number of projects to complete with them before I call it a day.”
“The current one is our ‘First Minutes Matter’ program which offers basic instruction in what to do when faced with an emergency trauma situation.”
Leanne is currently travelling around the state instigating the program in remote places such as Mt Isa and Roma.
Long time Canungra locals such as Leanne have many varied stories on how they first came to find their way to the area.
Leanne said she literally rode into town sitting on a motorbike alongside her husband, Dwain, who had fallen in love with the place.
“He’d keep walking me over to a Canungra real estate window to look at properties and he fortunately wore me down.”
“One day we noticed a home in Witheren so before we rode back down the mountain we went for a ‘ride by’ and we just happened to meet the caretakers.”
“They invited us in to look at the home which sat on a 2.5 acre block and the rest is history as I’m still in the same house today.”
Life hasn’t always been easy for Leanne having lost Dwain to Brain Cancer a few years ago.
“It was a tough time and I didn’t really know how I was going to look after the house once he passed.”
Her decision to stay in Canungra came down to the wonderful support she received from the local community and particularly the Turning Canungra Pink committee in those heart-breaking months.
“They dropped in a support package to us which made me realise that we were not alone in our journey.
“That package included a heart-felt letter saying that Canungra stood alongside me as a caring close friend that I could turn to for any support I needed.”
Leanne was so moved by that letter she wanted to part of the group’s transition to Community Cancer Care and joined the new committee standing as their president for two years before taking on the secretary’s role which we still does today.
She has truly dedicated to her life to helping others and is a community champion that any town would love to call their own, fortunately she is Canungra’s.
