Kevin Kerkow
Kelvin Kerkow is arguably Australia’s most recognizable and successful lawn bowler and author of Rolled Gold. When Kelvin won the Commonwealth Games Gold medal in the men’s singles tournament in Melbourne, 2006, he created one of the enduring images of Australian sport when he ripped off his shirt and was chaired around the ‘green’. To get to this point was a remarkable achievement as Kelvin was crippled as a child with the life threatening, rare Guillain Barre syndrome which attacks the nervous system. Kelvin was in a coma, paralysed and spent years undergoing surgery and being wheelchair bound. To this day, Kelvin bowls with the aid of a stick. It was only a mother’s love that enabled him to regain movement in his hands. She would sit by his bedside day and night massaging his fingers until movement returned.