Bob Holt is a rolled gold champion. And a game-changer. He’s certainly changed the game for sick babies and children – and their stressed families – in the outback town of Katherine, on the empty stretch of highway from Darwin to The Alice.
Bob Holt is an 82-year-old qualified mechanic who grew up near Royal North Shore Hospital. (He may even have even been born there. I forgot to ask him.) Anyway, he came to this tourist–cum-cattle town, in the middle of nowhere, on a six-month contract, just for a 'bush break’.
That was more than half a century ago!
Paul Francis, the Humpty Chairman, first met Bob on an unusual phone call about 4 years ago:
'G’day, Paul. My name’s Bob Holt. I’m sitting on the dunny in Katherine reading your Good Egg magazine. It was a supplement in the local newspaper, The NT Times.'
Bob went on to say that he was impressed by Humpty’s unique charity work for kids in The Territory (where 'every dollar raised in the NT, stays in the NT'), and he wanted to donate ten thousand dollars – specifically for Katherine Hospital.
Paul thanked him kindly and followed up the conversation a short time later, telling Bob exactly what his incredible generosity had bought in lifesaving equipment.
The following year, Bob made the same donation. Again, Paul told him how his money had been well-spent and of the difference it had made to families in Katherine.
Then earlier this year, out of the blue, Bob called again to say that he liked what the Humpty Dumpty Foundation did and wanted to give something 'a bit more substantial.'
Paul told him that was wonderful, asking roughly what he had in mind.
Bob said, quite matter-of-factly, 'Oh, a million dollars.'
The cheque arrived from his accountant a week or so later – about the same time Paul picked himself up off the floor.
Nothing quite like this had ever happened before in the Foundation’s thirty-plus-years history.
It turns out that Bob Holt and his wife raised four kids in Katherine and built a successful trucking business, carting concrete across The Territory, mostly to mining sites.
Bob still drives a giant, fully loaded, silver rig back and forth to Darwin five times a week in the busy season. That can add up to over four thousand kilometres in open-road trips every week. Not too shabby for an Octogenarian!
So, last month, Paul flew to Katherine to finally meet Bob and join him at the local hospital. Bob collected Paul from the tidy little Katherine airport in his old and battered VW pick-up truck.
At the hospital, the enthusiastic, highly-skilled paediatric nursing team – mostly women – told and showed Bob exactly how his incredible generosity had changed their lives. And more importantly, how Bob's generosity had changed the lives of so many babies and families in this isolated, sometimes forgotten corner of Australia.
Bob Holt with Ray Martin AM and Katherine Hospital staff
We learnt some years ago, when we first went up to the Northern Territory (NT) to see how Humpty might be able to help, that even Darwin – the Territory’s capital city – totally depends on Canberra for its health budget. This means an important institution like the Royal Darwin Hospital can often fall off the political radar, forgotten. After all, there aren’t many votes in the NT.
So, imagine how much more forgotten a mostly Aboriginal town like Katherine sits. It's right down the end of a fiscal spur-line, almost non-existent.
Of course, the sad and cruel fact of life is that outback and regional hospitals across Australia actually need MORE medical equipment because they have real trouble attracting specialists, doctors and nursing staff. Katherine and its enormous district, for example, have about 400 pregnancies a year, and yet they don’t have a paediatrician based in the town. An absurd fact.
Anyway, the nursing staff at Katherine Hospital told Bob they loved him and how much he had done for babies and children – and, indeed, for the whole wellbeing of Katherine.
The tough-as-teak, old truck driver teared up and was a bit embarrassed by all the attention and gratitude. Yet, he was clearly proud – as he should have been – of what a lifesaving difference his extraordinary gift had made to the many families he had never even met. And his gift will keep on giving.
That’s the way it mostly is when Humpty’s supporters show such generosity – whether it’s a hundred dollars or a million, as in Bob’s case.
As he was dropped back at Katherine Airport, Paul Francis, still curious, asked Bob, 'Why?'
'Well, you know, Paul,' the grand old man replied with a smile in his eyes, 'I don’t want to be the richest man in the cemetery!'
And I guess that’s the moral of the story.
As much as every single dollar is appreciated, you don’t have to wait to help the sick children. Like Bob Holt, you can make a difference today and see the joy and relief it can bring.
By Ray Martin AM