Daring to smile

“There were a couple of years there where the only reason we got Christmas was because the Salvos were able to help me out.” – Nicole

Several years ago, Nicole found herself parenting her three young children alone after her relationship to their father, diagnosed with a mental health issue, deteriorated.

To complicate matters, her children, now aged seven to nine, have required ongoing specialist medical treatment for a range of conditions including juvenile arthritis.

“All three of my children require a special diet and, at times, medication, which can mean that providing just the very essential things in life like food, clothing, heat and a roof over our heads can almost seem impossible,” she says.

Reaching a crisis point, Nicole says she very reluctantly sought help from The Salvation Army Emergency Relief in Canberra which has assisted more than 2300 clients in the past six months.

“They were the difference between having food and not having food, or having winter clothes instead of going cold,” Nicole says. “There are times when you are literally at rock bottom and the Salvos have been the ones who have helped get us back on our feet.”

Battling pain and poverty

On top of a daily financial struggle, Nicole’s teeth were in an extremely poor state.

“Constant chronic infections, broken teeth and unbearable pain were taking a major toll,” she says. “The ongoing costs just for doctors’ appointments, antibiotics and pain relief were crippling.”

The Salvation Army referred Nicole to The Dental Health Program, run in partnership with ACT Health and the ACT Southern Tablelands Division of the Australian Dental Association which offers an on-site dental service in Civic ACT. There is also a smaller service in nearby NSW.

Founder, Salvation Army volunteer Liz Dawson (OAM) explains that a poor dental state can profoundly affect employability and self-esteem. She says:

“A client when told her turn had come on the dental waiting list wept at the end of the phone because that morning, when she had said to her seven-year-old ‘would you like me to come to assembly this morning’, he’d said ‘no, I don’t want you to come because your teeth are black’.”

Nicole now confidently works as an assistant manager at a school canteen and is completing a certificate in Food and Safety Management.

She says: “For a long time I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t go out in public. I was incredibly self-conscious.

“So when dentist Colin* went out of his way to get me, as quickly as possible, to a point where I felt like I could smile again, that in itself was life-changing.”

* Dr Colin Seaniger won a highly Commended Award in the 2013 ACT Volunteer of the Year Awards.