A GROUP of volunteers with experience of cancer have joined forces as “community champions” in a bid to improve Frankston’s low cancer screening rates. The innovative community awareness program was launched last week by Cancer Council Victoria, South Eastern Melbourne Peninsula Health Network and Frankston Council, in response to data showing that screening participation rates for Frankston residents are among the lowest in the state. The 12 volunteers come from Frankston and surrounds and have been trained to spread the word amongst family, friends and colleagues about the need for early detection and treatment. Cancer Council data shows bowel cancer…
Author: Liz Bell
SAFETY on the Frankston train line has hit the spotlight again, with claims that the latest crime statistics show high crime in the area despite security improvements including CCTV cameras and patrols. Liberal police and community safety opposition spokesman Ed O’Donohue said data showed 31 offences were recorded in the two months between April and June this year, but that many of the crimes committed outside of protective services officer operating hours were still going “undetected”. Statewide, there were 1629 crimes committed at metropolitan railway stations in the same period, the highest quarter of crime at metropolitan train stations since…
A NEW solution to an age-old ‘sticky’ problem has won Chelsea student Bridgette Veneris a trip to NASA in America and $500 for St Joseph’s primary school. The lateral-thinking ten year old has just won the littleBIGidea competition for her sticky plaster dispenser, which is now being patented and will hopefully be on the supermarket shelves in the not-too-distant future. So impressed were competition organisers with her idea that judge James O’Loghlin, host of the ABC’s New Inventors TV show, flew down from Sydney last Tuesday to surprise Bridgette at school with news of her win. The win is particularly…
IF you noticed a lot of huge men around Frankston last Saturday (29 October), there’s a strong chance they were part of a fast-growing powerlifting craze that attracted lifters to town from around the world. Here for the ‘Big Dogs’ powerlifting competition, an invitation-only competition held for the first time in Frankston, eight powerlifters from Russia, the UK and Australia pitted their muscles against each other in the three-set lifting sequence. After lots of grunting and clenching of muscles by all involved, Russia claimed the $30,000 prize when 39-year-old Andrey Malanichev lifted a total of 1140 kilograms in the combined…
IN her short but inspirational life, 23-year-old Jess Van Zeil has not asked very much of others. The high-achieving Frankston South resident, who grew up in Mt Eliza and worked in Mornington, is now asking for help from others to give her a chance at life. At 22, Jess had the world at her feet – just weeks away from completing a degree in nutrition, on the brink of a part-time career in motivational speaking, and working up to 30 hours a week at a job she loved. “My life was completely different, I was busy being busy, and focusing…