Come 2028, CDC Queensland bus driver and lawn bowls extraordinaire Stephen Faux is hoping he’ll be in Belgium, competing in the World Deaf Games in Brussels.
Stephen, who works out of the Kunda Park depot, was born 100 per cent deaf in his right ear and over time his hearing has diminished in his left ear to 30 per cent. To help with this, he uses a hearing aid in his left, which allows him to stay connected and continue doing what he loves.
But that hasn’t stopped him from trying to lead a normal life as possible.
“It’s just given me more hoops to jump through and brick walls to climb, but I get there,” he said.
Most recently, he competed in the Queensland State Multi Disability Championships, coming in fourth place in both the DLBQ Hearing Impaired Open Singles and Open Pairs. He narrowly missed out on bronze in both categories.
He also competed in the State Championships and the Australian Open for singles and disability singles earlier in the year. During the disability singles competition, he made it through to the final 16 and beat an Australian paralympic representative.
“My goal for this year is to get picked in the state side,” he said.
“Everything’s looking very positive on that and through that it reflects on work and life, and it puts you in a pretty good place.
“Going up and playing against the top-level players in the country is all very exciting. The State Championship and the Australian Open are basically just the benchmark to see where I’m at and what I need to work on.”
Stephen, who plays at Club Kawana, joined Deaf Bowls Queensland because of his disability and it is through that he and others are hoping to represent Australia at the 2028 World Deaf Games.
He hired a full-time coach and usually spends about four or five sessions on the green each week.
“I’ve always been very sports orientated and as you get older you obviously can’t play rugby league and have to stop playing cricket and everything,” he said.
“A mate of mine suggested I come and have a go at lawn bowls and yeah, I just fell in love with it.”
The 60-year-old joined the CDC family in June 2022 looking for a work-life balance after some major health issues.
The schools on Stephen’s route include Maroochydore High School, Suncoast Christian College, Nambour Christian College, St Johns College and Woombye Primary School.
He said he loves his job and has a great bunch of kids to look after.
“This is different from any other job I’ve had, and the kids make it very worthwhile,” he said.
“They’re very supportive, they don’t like it when I’m off because they’re always worried, I’m not going to come back.
“I’d like to thank the support I’ve got from CDC from Anna and everybody and Rob for giving me the time off to do what I want to do and pursue what I want to pursue, so hopefully I can pay everybody back with some good results.”
