KEN Hall is on a mission. The 74-year-old Hervey Bay pensioner and one-time drover wants a nationwide radio service that provides access to the news and information taken for granted by other Australians.
And while he says the long-established Radio for the Print Handicapped network does a wonderful job in 17 cities and major towns, too many Australians in rural and regional areas who cannot read are missing out.
"Wouldn't it be great if all those Australians who cannot read, all those people who have vision problems, all those people in nursing homes could just turn on the radio and listen to that in the newspapers and magazines?" Ken said.
"It would be a wonderful thing to allow everyone to access what is really important information."
Ken's reading difficulties began when he was eight after he was declared dead on the operating table following a burst appendix.
While he was revived, complications associated with a bad heart and a shortage of oxygen to the brain cost Ken his short-term memory.
"Right now, I can't tell you your name," Ken said.
"But ask me in five years and I will not only able to say your name, but also repeat every word we have had in this conversation."
Soon after the operation, Ken's mother was advised to say her farewells because her son would not make it through the night.
But to the amazement and consternation of the medical staff, Ken refused to go.
"The priest kept coming to me," Ken said.
"You're a lucky little boy. You'll be with the angels tonight, he told me.
"But the next day, I was still there. And the next and the next.
"Stuff him. I wasn't going anywhere.
"They kept saying I was about to go, so it seemed no one really worried about me much."
Ken became a permanent resident in the hospital. However, on his 12th birthday, he was shifted into the men's ward.
"Imagine that," Ken said. "A small boy surrounded by dying old men. It was just terrible."
A few years later the doctors told his mother to take him on holidays.
"They told my mum to take me to the coast. For certain I wasn't going to last much longer," Ken said.
"After that I refused to go back to the hospital."
At 17, the illiterate and under-schooled Ken went droving in north-west Queensland.
"I certainly liked it but I was never paid," he said.
"What I didn't know was the bosses were drinking OP rum and were drunk all the time.
"It turned out I was working for rogues."
Later he worked for a family out of Winton.
"They looked after me very well and paid me properly."
Countless operations on his heart and nine stents later, Ken is a living medical marvel.
"I wouldn't want anyone to have the life I have had," Ken said.
"It's been a bugger.
"I can build you a house, put a car together and even make an helicopter for you if you want.
"But if you value your life, don't ask me to cook."
Once he mistook a can of oven cleaner for spray-on oil. Another time it was bleach for lemon cordial.
"I haven't killed anyone yet, but I come close," he laughed.
Ken and his wife of 48 years, Jan, are regulars at the Drovers Reunion at the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach each June.
Ken has recorded his life story is his book What Next You Bastard, a terrific account of his life and a reference to his medically challenging life.
"I can't read a word of it. But everyone who reads it reckons it's a bloody good read."