Nicholas Gleeson, an athlete, accessibility advocate and global adventurer has been announced as Fairfield City’s Australia Day Ambassador for 2023.
Fairfield City Mayor Frank Carbone said it was fitting to have a person with such professional and personal achievements, as ambassador for Fairfield City.
“It is our pleasure to have Nicholas as our ambassador to help us celebrate our Australia Day community awards and residents receiving their Australian citizenship. I look forward to welcoming him to our City,” Mayor Carbone said.
Born in a working-class suburb of Melbourne, at the age of seven Nick was involved in an accident causing him to lose his vision. This did not stop Nick from achieving his dreams.
Nick’s passion has always been sport and adventure. He has represented Australia in athletics on three occasions and represented Victoria, New South Wales and Australia for almost 20 seasons in blind cricket. Nick’s travel adventures include running in the New York City Marathon three times, carrying the Sydney Olympic Torch, climbing the 1,576 steps of the Empire State Building and running 90km in the Comrades ultra-marathon in South Africa. After returning from South Africa, Nick reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. In 2009, Nick climbed to 6000 metres on Mount Everest, an experience that will stay with him forever.
In 2017, Nicholas published his first book, a memoir ‘The many ways of seeing’.
Mr Gleeson enjoys his work as a motivator, mentor, educator, leadership facilitator and his roles as Ambassador for the Australia Day Council, Ability Links NSW and the Living Life My Way program.
