" It is unusual to read a story that is so confrontingly real, and yet so profoundly uplifting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd"
Heath Ducker is a remarkable young man who threw off the shackles of an almost Dickensian childhood and achieved professional and personal success. One of 10 children with many different fathers, Heath lived in abject poverty in a run down house. At the age of 12, he was sexually abused by his best friend's father. The Sydney-based 'Youth Insearch' organisation became his saviour. It brought him into contact with other young people, some of whom had managed to overcome extraordinary deprivation. Their stories inspired the young Heath Ducker to work to overcome the handicaps of his own difficult background. He seized on education as his ticket out of the cycle of deprivation. Unable to study in the chaos and noise of a crowded house, he retreated to the rooftops to study. Heath is now a Lawyer at Gadens Lawyers, Sydney; a Trek Leader on the Kokoda Track with Adventure Kokoda; Patron of Butterfly Day (children in war); Leader, Youth Insearch Foundation and a Director of the Aunties and Uncles Co-Operative Family Project. Heath was a Director, Board of the Youth Insearch Foundation (1997-2005); Lawyer, South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre (2005) and Co-Founder of the Young Insearch Project (1997). Heath was a leader of the team responsible for setting up Youth Insearch in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Heath has held audiences with former Prime Minister John Howard and former Premier of NSW Bob Carr to advise on Youth Affairs and has appeared on "Australian Story" and in books "100 to1 An Australian Journey"; "Mosaic" and in several newspapers and radio shows. In May this year The Prime Minister of Australia, The Hon Kevin Rudd MP presented Heath with ADC's Australian Leadership Award 2008, presented to only 26 people from across Australia. Heath is also a recipient of the selective Rotary Youth Leadership and Service Above Self Awards. Heath was selected as Executive Officer upon Australia's Tall Sailing Ship the Young Endeavour in 2004. Heath is also a renowned speaker on "overcoming adversity" and "social change and activism in the 21st century". Samantha Trenoweth has written and edited books of biography and fiction, including The Future of God, A Big Life (with Jenny Kee), 1001 Australians (with Toby Creswell) and Screwed (with Ruth Hessey). Her work as a journalist and editor has spanned much of the Australian media, appearing in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Rolling Stone, Juice, Vogue Australia, HQ, in ABC Magazines and on ABC Radio.
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