2023 Australia Day Honours: Ernest Alchin's wife to accept OAM on behalf of late husband for his work with Alzheimer's and dementia in the Hunter

In recognition of his work for Alzheimer's and Dementia in the Hunter, Mr Alchhin has been named an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) recipient as part of the 2023 Australia Day awards.

The 86 year-old formerly of Nelson Bay, died on December 21, 2021 after a battle with lymphoma and dementia, but his legacy remains alive through his work.

His wife Heather Alchin will be accepting the OAM on his behalf and said her husband played a pivotal role for people with dementia and their carers in the area.

"He had cared for his first wife Mary when she had dementia and he joined a carers group, he discovered there was very little support in Newcastle and in the Hunter at all," she said,

"So Ern being Ern, started activating for some kind of assistance and as a consequence that's when the Hunter Network of New South Wales started."

Mr Thomas was chairman of the board at Hunter Network from 1998 to 2008

"They had a two-fold role and one of those was to advance people with dementia and their carers in the area to try and get a facility rather than having to go to Sydney and the other was to actually provide information to people," Mrs Alchin said.

Operating out of an office in the Wallsend Hospital, Hunter Network ran seminars all around the area and provided handout information to local doctors on dementia and Alzheimer's.

"Ern was vital and extremely passionate," Mrs Alchin said.

Mr Alchin held a board member position with Alzheimer's Australia NSW, now part of Dementia Australia from 2001-2007. He was a keynote speaker at the Hunter Dementia Alliance Conference, 2019, a supporter at Hunter Dementia and Memory Resource Centre, 2008 and a board member for three years at East Lake Macquarie Dementia Service, Anglican Care.

"I'm so proud of him and I am so proud of the work he did," Mrs Alchin said.

"He never did anything for any other reason than it needed to be done. And he didn't do it alone. He led a large number of volunteers in the direction where he was determined to go and as a consequence, we now have a facility in Newcastle."

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Mrs Alchin said her husband would've been humbled to receive an OAM.

"He was a man who just assumed that everyone else worked as hard as he did to make everything right. He was a wonderful man."

"I am so sad that he is not here to have this and he developed dementia in 2013 and it was... for a man, who worked so hard for the community - to have developed dementia - it still makes me feel so sad," she said.

She said she felt privileged to have met Mr Alchin after she had also lost a loved one to dementia.

"I was a carer for my first husband and that's how I got involved. In the end I suppose the two of us sort of found each other through Alzheimer's and dementia," she said.

"I was so privileged to meet him and to have him with me. If I could have him here tomorrow. I'd have him straight back."

He was also Rotary International President at Rotary Club of Belmont from 1986-1987, the former president at Rotary Club of Neutral Bay and former chairman of Rotary District Probus. He was a Paul Harris Fellow in 2000.

He held a president role at the Men's Probus Club of Valentine from 2006-2007, vice president in 2005-2006 and social event coordinator from 2008-2009.

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