‘Our People Their Stories’ celebrates our diverse workforce, which is made up of more than 40,000 people who are all different. Different preferences and perspectives. Different heritages and different beliefs.

These are ordinary people like us, who bravely share the experiences that shaped them and the lessons they learnt which has led them to think, act and live differently.

To start the series, we spoke to Larry Green, National Plant Manager, who spoke about the day in June 2019 when his life changed forever.

In the span of a week, Larry changed from being a healthy person to Intensive Care Unit patient – relying on a ventilator to breathe, for five long months.

Larry had been working at Downer for over 10 years as a National Plant and Equipment Manager in  Downer’s Collins Street office. He and his wife, Michelle, have been married for 40 years with two children; their lives seemed relatively normal.

That was, until Larry started experiencing gastroenteritis symptoms one night. They seemed innocuous at first. Little did Larry know that these symptoms were only the beginning.

Tingling in the lips and weakness in the left hand soon followed. Larry said he, “did what most males do and ignored it”.

The following morning, Larry had coffee with his manager, Murray Brown, and things deteriorated very quickly from there.

He caught a taxi with his wife to the Alfred Hospital emergency room and within 16 hours, Larry experienced total paralysis and spent the following five months hooked up to a ventilator.

After extensive testing for signs of a stroke, the neurological department diagnosed Larry with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a rare neurological disorder in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks part of its nervous system resulting in tingling and numbness, and in severe cases, paralysis.

Larry endured the painstaking tasks of re-learning basic motor skills, like speaking and sitting up. Learning to stand, he explained, “was incredibly painful”. Medical professionals told Larry he would never get better.

For most people, receiving such dire news from doctors would be incredibly hard to process and accept; however, for Larry these comments fuelled his motivation to prove them all wrong and show them he still had the will to fight for his life.

Larry transformed from being completely dependent on carers moving him to and from his bed, wheelchair and shower, to now being able to walk independently with the support of a walking frame.

When asking Larry what his motivations were to getting better and returning to work, his answer was not only to maintain that financial stability but to continue to operate in society in a normal way and to prove to people that he is still able to function and work despite living with a disability.

Larry says he felt supported by Downer and his colleagues throughout his experience, and through the help of Downer has been able to maintain his role while initially working nine hours a week and progressing to full-time work, which is an amazing achievement.

He says that the support from the team, while he transitioned back to work, was pivotal for his mental resilience and physical recovery.

Larry is grateful for the support from Downer, especially Murray and his colleagues, and for the software Dragon Dictate, which enables him to work using speech-to-text features.

Larry adds: “Murray Brown’s leadership, flexibility, and support have been crucial to my recovery. I’m fortunate to work with him, but most importantly he is a true friend. Downer is extremely fortunate to have him, and our People & Culture team who are role models for demonstrating empathy and inclusion.”

Murray explains how he sees improvement in Larry every single day and to see him from where he started to where he is now is “unbelievable”. Murray adds that Larry’s “spirit and determination” throughout the entire experience has been remarkable.

The key message that Larry wants to get across to all people, particularly men, is to not ignore the signs. There is nothing you can do to prevent contracting GBS; however, the earlier you seek help, the better the outcome will be.

Around one in 100,000 people are diagnosed with GBS, and the severity can differ from case to case. Larry has experienced one of the most severe cases of GBS there is.

“I’ve now come to accept after two years, I will probably, to some degree, have a lifetime disability because of this disease which I am now coming to terms with – but I’m not accepting,” he says. “I will never stop trying to improve because this is how I have gotten to where I am now.”

Larry enjoying some morning tea at Sergio Cinerari’s 60th birthday morning tea in the Melbourne office.