Making an impact: Man’s dream to help people with different abilities

After receiving a life-changing diagnosis, one man has started an independent NDIS service to help others with different abilities.
After receiving a life-changing diagnosis, a Toowoomba father-of-two has started an independent NDIS service and hopes to use his own experiences to assist people living with disabilities.
Mark Brennan has been battling mental health for his entire life, but it wasn’t until he was 50-year-old, that he received his diagnosis and could finally seek treatment.
Now, four years on, Mr Brennan is feeling on top of the world and through his own personal and professional experiences, wants to help others living with disabilities to flourish.
Offering a range of NDIS services through his new organisation Respectability, the 54-year-old said he believes his knowledge would assist people living with disabilities, as well as their loved ones.
“I’m a local person with a disability, who is also an NDIS participant, as well as an independent NDIS provider,” he said.
“My background in the NDIS space is quite unique as I have both my own individual, lived experience, but I have also worked in various leadership roles and areas of disability support services.”
Receiving his diagnosis late in life has not stopped the single parent from being a loving father to his two daughters and is something of a success story.
“I don’t class it as people having a disability – I call it different abilities because that’s what it is,” Mr Brennan said.
“Hundreds of thousands of people here and across the globe live with a disability, whether it be physical, intellectual or psychosocial, and live very fulfilling lives … I’m proof that it’s possible.
“Anyone can say they understand disability if they work in the field, but not everyone identifies, can connect and understand the journey, unless you’ve lived a similar journey yourself, which I have.”