He has always been active in the in Community.

2009: Innovative Hair Loss Solutions donated over 500 Christmas hampers to the Salvation army.

2010: with the help of sponsors, Derek sent the Children from Oasis house to the Gold Coast with all expenses paid including entry to all theme parks.

2011: Australia Day 2011 he won the most “outstanding citizen Award” in his local community, the Wanneroo Shire. At the time he was the President of the Yanchep Junior Red hawks, AFL club for
2 seasons.

2012: he fought in a charity boxing match to raise money for the less fortunate. He climbed to the highest peak in Italy with the Telethon. Adventurers to raise money for Child hood cancer in 2013.

2014: Then after a few personal experiences suicide related he found a different purpose.
He went on to start the “Let’s talk about Suicide 2014 Campaign”, where he and a team rode horse back from Bunbury to Perth to raise money for Life line crisis call centre operators.

His goal is simple, to significantly reduce the number of Australians who take their own life. He does this through promoting the statistics from Life line and Suicide prevention Australia websites and aims to
introduce simple techniques to businesses offering immediate help for those in a crisis.

2018: Derek, has been acknowledged for his work around suicide prevention, by the Chairperson, Dr Vanessa Lee of the Suicide prevention Australia committee during the 2018 “Life Awards”. Derek has spent time with Dr Jacqui Joseph Bowen who has spent 40 years as a Medical Dr with “hands on” experience in Suicide prevention and Dr Jacqui was one of the founders of “the Black Dog” Derek has successfully completed.

Mental health first aid Australia course with the Red Cross.

The SafeTalk course and Gatekeeper suicide prevention training course.

2019: Derek has now joined forces with Troy Coward to launch the Beacon Fight for life LTD and they have some very exciting news to share with the Australian and Multicultural communities in the very near future.