Mark Mickan Home Improvement

Mark Mickan has spent 4 weeks in Melbourne with his wife and children after brain surgery to help reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. This surgery has been extremely successful and has made a huge difference in his day to day living.

There has been another project happening back in Adelaide to improve home life for Mark and his family. While Mark would never in a million years complain about his home, there were some obvious areas of improvement to make their lives more comfortable. Former team mate Bernie Conlen saw the struggle Mark was having and wanted to help.

Fixing one area in Marks house soon became a whole house update due to the support of a huge list of people. Mark has had an impact on an enormous amount of people over his football career, and as you can imagine there was a long list of people wanting to do what they could for Rubbers.

David Shipway AM said, ‘This project is the brain child of & been driven by West Adelaide 1983 Premiership Player Bernie Conlen. Bernie has put an enormous amount of time & effort into getting the job done to give Mark a big hand as he deals with his illness & recent operation.’

‘The football community does a great job in looking after their mates & Bernie has rallied support right across the spectrum of the SANFL Clubs to achieve a great result.’

‘Mark Mickan is a quality person who is greatly admired & respected by the whole football world & while he will need ongoing support, the renovation project has given Mark & his family a great lift. We are all indebted to Bernie & his merry workers for their great contribution.’

There has been a huge number of people wanting to assist, whether its Steven Rowe doing some painting, the Gowan brothers doing some building or even 94 year old Brian Faeshe doing some gardening.

The West Adelaide Football Club would like to thank every person/business that has chipped in along the way to assist Mark Mickan and his family (list below).

There is an fundraiser event being organised through Darren Chandler at Adelaide Oval on August 9^th at 6:30pm in the William Magarey Room. More information on this to come.

Bernie Conlen has written the following message to those who have assisted with this project:

To all those who generously gave of time, labour & products.

I would like to sincerely thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for making the Mickan’s home makeover project such a success. In the beginning I didn’t know where to start & was reluctant to impose on people’s generosity. I soon came to realise the impact Mark has had on so many people & football clubs throughout Australia when the answer to my request was always a resounding whatever we can do to help.

The only resistance I had was from Mark when at the start thought I should channel my efforts into Westies rather than himself. Luckily he had to spend 6 weeks in Melbourne.

The aim of this project was to make Marks journey with Parkinson’s a little easier & I’m sure he realises that we are all behind him on that journey as well.

I was lucky enough to feel the love that was expressed from the football community towards Rubbers.

We still have a small amount of work to complete at Mark’s which should be done in a couple of weeks.

Once again thank you to all of you who have contributed it has been your generosity time & love towards Mark that has made this project so easy to achieve.

Sincerely

Bernie Conlen

List of Donors

En-suite: shower screens (Regency Shower Screens & Wardrobes – David Saint.) West Adelaide

Bathroom: shower screens (Regency Shower Screens & Wardrobes – David Saint & John Flanigan)

Master & 2 boys bedrooms wardrobes & doors (Regency Shower Screens & Wardrobes – David Saint.)

Ducted Air-conditioner system: (David Shipway ) Altic Air

Bobcat, dump truck and soil (Maurie Ranger & Andrew Ramage.  Jkr Ramage Builders.) West Adelaide

Landscapers & paving (Jono Beech and Murray Waite) West Adelaide

Skip (Ty Allen) Glenelg & Sturt

Carpenters. (Gowans Home and Renovations) Central districts

Bathroom tiling. (Gowans Home and Renovations) Central districts

Dumping of three sliding doors. (Lester Ross) Norwood

Curtains: lounge & master bedroom (Troy Barnes.. Solomans.)

Shower rose & taps throughout home. (Chris Barrett –  Harvey Norman Commercial Brisbane) West Adelaide & Port Adelaide

Carpet: all bedrooms (flooring xtra organised by Paul Sherwood) Glenelg

Electrical work: (Ben mules, Gerard & Ben Toohey) Woodville West Torrens

Plumber (Tim Nicholas – Tim’s Plumbing) West Adelaide

Kitchen remodelling. (Farquhar kitchens) Glenelg

Kitchen: gas top installed. (Trevor Cranson) Glenelg

Back door: fixed or replaced because it can’t be locked. (Kieran Sporn) West Adelaide

Blue board & plaster board (Mike Burns) West Adelaide & North Adelaide

Paint (Nick Chigwidden) Glenelg

Painters: (Stephen Rowe & Luke Panozzo) Norwood, Glenelg & Sturt

Framing timbers & door frames (Greg Fielke from Scott Salisbury) West Adelaide

Tiles national tiles mile end. (Scott Griffiths)

Door handles. (Kieran Sporn) West Adelaide

Back wall crack (Luke Powell) Woodville West Torrens

Pavers for front garden area: Adbri Masonry (Luke Powell) Woodville West Torrens

Irrigation system (Bernie Conlen) West Adelaide

Other Assistance:

Brian Faeshe

Dexter Kennedy

Adelaide image printing: Wayne Turnbull

Adelaide galvanising: Tony Grantham

West Adelaide 83 past players: Peter Meuret, Leon Grosser, Greg Summerton, Randal Bennett, Grant Fielke,  John Kantilaftas, Dexter Kennedy, Tony Burgess & Robbie Mckinnon.

Thomas Farm foods

Cimarosti butchers

Tune into Today Tonight at 6:30pm for the story on Mark