Name : Ben Tullipan

DOB : 17/12/1975

Home Town : Gold Coast, Queensland

Home Club : Gainsborough Greens, Gold Coast

Started Golf In : January 2007

Tournaments played : 2007 Australian Amputee Open, 2007 Queensland Amputee Open and 2008 Australian Amputee Open. Also played in the invitational 2007 MFS Australian Open Pro-Am in Sydney.

2007 - 3rd Queensland Open Multi division

2008 - Australian Open  Winner Multi division 

2008 - Queensland Net winner  Multi division

Best score off the stick : 84 

Amputation/s : Right below knee and Left above knee

Date of Amputation : 14 October 2002

Reason for amputation : 2002 Bali Bombings

What I do for work : Volunteer my time for Zero to One Foundation which supports victims of terrorism and natural disasters.

 

My story in a nutshell :

I had a successful Balinese Furniture Import Business on the Gold Coast. I was in Bali on one of my many buying trips when I went into the Sari Club one night to buy a bottle of water when the terrorist bomb exploded in a van parked outside the Sari Club. I was airlifted out of Denpasar, Bali to Darwin the following day by the Australian Army on one of the Hercules planes. Upon landing at Darwin I was taken by Lear Jet to Concord Hospital in Sydney where I was in a coma for weeks. I suffered more than 63% full thickness burns to my body, lost both of my legs, am deaf in one ear and lost most of my stomach muscles.

It took one year of rehabilitation before I was able to attempt to walk on my 2 prosthetic legs. As a result of me not being able to work any more, I had to close my furniture shop and now volunteer my time working for the Zero to One Foundation which supports victims of terrorism and natural disasters.

In 2006 I was awarded the Pride of Australia Medal for Courage and this year won the 2008 Gold Coast Citizen of the Year Award .