Jim Karas was born on the 7th of July 1949 in Kavala, Greece. The youngest of six children, Jim described his upbringing as ideal and he was very close to his parents and enjoyed school. At the age of 17, Jim met Amara and they married a year later. Jim’s father encouraged him to move to Australia to work for his uncle who had emigrated 20 years previously. Although somewhat reluctant, Jim thought Australia sounded exciting and thought it would be a great start for both he and Amara. Amara was not as keen to move but wanted to do what would make Jim happy. They arrived in Australia in 1969 and were excited to find they were expecting their first child (George was born in 1970, followed by a daughter Angela in 1971). Jim was overjoyed to be a father and while still working for his Uncle started to explore the idea of starting his own smallgoods business. This happened quite quickly when a nearby shop became vacant. Jim wanted to work close to home as he was worried about Amara, since arriving in Australia she had only made a few friends in the Greek community and only spoke one or two words of English. Jim tried to encourage her to learn English but each time she became frustrated. Jim recalls that Amara cried frequently after the children were born – he felt it was because she was homesick. While he was concerned about his wife, he felt that they needed to remain in Australia as his small business was becoming hugely successful, customers would travel long distances to buy his smallgoods. He worked hard, sometimes over 80 hours per week. He was well known in the community as a happy, hard-working and very likable man. His hospitality was well known and the family home was host to many memorable events and parties. Amara was an excellent cook and no-one ever went hungry, although she preferred to stay in the kitchen cooking and washing up, while Jim entertained the guests with his stories and singing. Amara discovered in 1979 that she was pregnant again, although shocked she was excited; however the baby boy was stillborn at full term. Amara felt deep sadness and a sense of failure, she lost her appetite (and as a result lost a significant amount of weight) and started smoking heavily (60 cigarettes per day). She rarely left the house. Jim said little and instead worked harder and spent the remainder of his time in his shed, working on old cars. In 1990 after dropping out of university George decided to work for his father – for Jim this was a defining moment as he now had a family business – this had been his dream and to celebrate he had the front of the shop repainted with “Karas & Son Family Butchery”. Jim was content and his daughter completed her education and was awarded a Bachelor of Science and worked for a number of years as a research assistant. Angela started a family with her partner Clare. Angela gave birth to Thomas in 2005 and started to notice he was ‘different to other children’ at around the age of two. Thomas was diagnosed with ASD. Clare left shortly after his diagnosis and returned to work in the west. Jim subdivided his very large block and built a house for Angela and Thomas next door. It was around this time that Amara’s health started to deteriorate. Jim spent more time at home helping both Amara and Angela. George took over the running of the business and convinced his father to expand the business by buying second shop. Jim was incredibly proud and told everyone what a good business head his son had. However, Jim was unaware that George had a gambling problem and was taking large sums of money from the business. In 2008 during the global financial crisis, George left Australia and Jim and Amara have not heard from him despite their efforts to trace and contact him. Due to the debts that George accumulated in Jim’s name, he lost the business and almost lost his family home. Jim now cares for Amara full-time, she has COPD and heart failure. Jim now cooks, cleans and provides Amara’s personal care. He has declined all offers of assistance from healthcare providers, family and friends, as it is “his job to care for his wife not a stranger”. Jim had planned a retirement in which they could both travel and enjoy their children and grandchildren – Jim had saved hard for retirement but the debts from the business took all of their savings and they now rely solely on the pension. Amara has not left the house in over a year. The financial struggles, losing contact with his son and caring for his wife have taken an emotional toll on Jim. In June of this year, Angela saw the lights on in her father’s shed and thought she would go and have a chat as her father seemed quite down in the past few months. As she approached the shed she saw him sitting in his beloved 1962 EJ Holden, at first she thought he was sleeping but something didn’t seem right, when she opened the car door she found Jim unresponsive and ran inside to call 000. When the ambulance arrived, Jim was not responsive. He wasn’t breathing but the ambulance officers could feel a faint carotid pulse. They inserted an oropharyngeal airway, intravenous (IV) cannula and provided ventilation with bag/valve/mask using 100% oxygen. The ambulance officers reassured Angela who was distraught after finding her beloved father in such a terrible state. After calling the ambulance, she had turned off the engine and pulled her dad out of the car toward fresh air – this was a difficult task as Jim is 171 cms tall and weighs 89kgs. Angela kept saying ‘I didn’t know what to do? How could I have saved him?’