70th Anniversary Sandakan Death March

In May 2015, I will be participating in the 70th anniversary commemorative walk that follows the path by those forced to participate in one of Australia's worst war time tragedies.  I will be walking to honour my Uncle John who died on this march. The walk is being organised by Lynette Silver, a noted historian and author of the book, Sandakan A Conspiracy of Silence.

My father often spoke about his older brother John. Milton was about 10 or 12 when John enlisted, but he remembered him very fondly. He was very popular and had a wide circle of friends. My dad commented that he had a personality much like my own son Kyle – always laughing and happy.  He was a very keen member of the Queenscliff Surf Club.  He died along the Sandakan-Ranau track near the Malio Rest House on the Melio River.  His official cause of death according to the nominal roll in this book was malaria, which most likely means he was too weak to continue walking and fell behind.  This usually meant death at the hands of the Japanese.

This is a photograph of John with his mates at Queenscliff Beach near the Surf Club.  Photo was taken in 1938.  John is marked with a blue cross.  The other 2 photos are of John before he went to War.

This was a real family tragedy.  John’s brother George was also a POW in Thailand and Burma.  Fortunately he did survive and he was a very popular member of our family, who also spoke very highly about John.

From all the members of his family we honour John’s sacrifice. I will make sure my own sons and grandchildren know his story.

I mainly want to do the walk to commemorate my uncle, but I also felt it would be a good opportunity to  raise some money for a worthwhile cause.  My wife is a sufferer of early onset Parkinson's and has been forced to give up her work as a result.  Fortunately she was a suitable candidate for Deep Brain Stimulation and this has been very successful in alleviating the symptoms of the disease.  However it still has major implications in her daily life.  We have received fantastic assistance from the DBS team in Sydney, headed by Paul Silberstein, as well as the unit at Rankin Park Hospital and in particular, Evelyn Collins.  So I am more than happy to try to raise some money for Parkinson's NSW to assist in the very worthwhile programs and support they provide.

Your donation to my cause would be greatly appreciated. You will receive an email acknowledgement of your donation from Parkinson's NSW that can be used as a receipt for a taxable deduction.  Could you please let your friends and colleagues know about my fundraising activity by forwarding on the web address of this page.

Thank you for supporting my cause.

Bruce Evans

Link to Lynette Silver's site 

http://sandakandeathmarch.com/