Uncle Leslie Stewart is an Aboriginal Elder and Board Member of Cherbourg Regional Aboriginal and Islander Community Controlled Health Services. 

Uncle Les has one goal in life, and that’s to help the community of Cherbourg.  

And that is why Uncle Les made the choice to be vaccinated against COVID-19. 

“I’m going to be able to assist those people and assist other people in the community, if need be,” Uncle Les said. 

“That was my main goal, to be able to assist people,” he said. 

“I recommend [the vaccine] to anyone. 

“If you’re thinking about your family, your community, especially our elders and people we know are carrying illnesses, I think it’s imperative we support those people by getting vaccinated and being able to be there for them when we need to be there.” 

As an Elder in the community, Uncle Les speaks to a lot of people and he has a lot of conversations about the COVID-19 vaccines. He tells people that once they get it done, they will feel a lot less anxious. 

“I know there’s still a lot of hesitancy within our community as well as individuals,” he said.  

“It’s one of those things: everyone’s apprehensive about anything that’s new coming into community. 

“I think once you get it done it overrides any anxiety that you may be feeling about getting vaccinated.  

“It’s just one of those things that once you get it, it’s done.” 

As a person who cares deeply for his community, Uncle Les is very worried about what may happen when borders are opened up and COVID-19 is more likely to circulate around the Queensland population. 

“Like I said before, we’ve got a whole lot of people out here that are carrying illnesses and some of our people don’t even know that they have certain types of illness.  

“So if COVID does hit, it’s going to hit, and hit tremendously badly for our people in the community.  

“My concern is we’ve got a whole heap of children, young women and men that need protection.  

“And we always talk about protection for our community and our people. 

“We need to start thinking about how we’re going to protect our youth and our families and mainly our Elders.  

“If COVID hits, our elderly people are going to be targeted.  

“Like I said, the age and the illnesses that we carry when we get older makes us targets for COVID.  

“So if we can get people to recommend to their families that the COVID vaccine isn’t a really bad thing, it’s a support system that we can utilise for our community and our people.” 

For more information or to book a vaccination appointment contact CRAICCHS.