By TANIA PHILLIPS
WHEN local police detective Senior Constable Chris McNamara suffered a severe stroke back in 1995, his mates were quick to come to his aid.
Eighteen years later, they are still keeping an eye on him and his family.
Former boss Mick Bryant, who is now retired from the police service, said the stroke left Chris a quadriplegic but rather than see their mate and his young family suffer, his work friends all banded together to help.
“Chris and his wife Lyn had to sell their family home and with the help of his police colleagues it was planned to build a specially designed home,” Mick said.
“ The home was subsequently built at Terranora , with assistance from local tradesmen and colleagues who had been tradesmen before entering the Police Service.
“ All tradesmen volunteered their time and local people would just turn up at the site to assist in any way they could.
“At the time of his stroke, Chris and Lyn had three young children.”
He said as with all children they grew up and eventually moved from home.
“With the children gone, the house now is too large to manage,” he said.
“Lyn and Chris have found a nice unit suitable to their needs. To enable their home to be sold, small maintenance jobs have had to be done.”
Over the past couple of weekends, Chris’s old work mates have come together and completed those jobs.
Their house will be sold at auction on14 December 2013 at 10.15am on site at 3 Bushranger Road, Terranora.
Anyone who would like to view the home can do so every Saturday between 10am and 11am.
“This home is a great family home and is ideal not only for someone with a disability but as a great family home,” he said.
Lyn said she was looking forward to moving in to Tweed now that her last son was about to leave home and she said this would allow Chris to get out a lot more and catch up with his friends.
She paid tribute to his mates, saying they had been amazing over the years.
“Whenever we have needed something, they have been there,” she said.
The auction will be conducted by another former colleague Peter Swift.
