Author(s): Bill Sutcliffe

Biography & Memoir

Overcoming a childhood of abuse and neglect, Bill Sutcliffe's unselfish life proves that one goodhearted person can make a difference to many. Bill Sutcliffe is an ordinary man with an extraordinary story to tell. Driven is a memoir primarily about the power of love, forgiveness, encouragement and mentoring. Of discovering his destiny and fulfilling it and assisting others to do the same. From poverty and an abusive childhood, Bill is a remarkable example of how seemingly insurmountable obstacles can be overcome with faith and a belief that anything is possible and achievable. After a youth of bitterness, violence, and petty crime, Bill's life was turned around at the age of nine years old when the owner of the shop from which Bill was shoplifting, stopped him, told him he knew Bill had been pilfering and said, 'You are very gifted, son, but what you need to do is use your gifts for positive purposes rather than for negative ones. Help people rather than steal from them. Promise me you'll do that and never do this again, and I won't tell your parents or the police. Deal?'. This belief in Bill's potential was reinforced by one of his teachers who said, 'I reckon what you've got to do, more than anything, is to prove people wrong. All those people you've told me about who have put you down over the years and said you'll never amount to anything- prove them wrong! Otherwise you'll play into their hands. You've got a good mind, an analytical mind, a creative mind. You're also good at sport. Be the best you can be at everything you do, and you will certainly prove people wrong.' Bill attended a Theological College at the age of twenty-one. Two years later, he was appointed Assistant Manager then Manager of a Drop-in-Centre and Alcoholic Rehabilitation Centre in Melbourne, and subsequently became the youngest Superintendent of the Ballarat City Mission in its one hundred year history. His mission of helping and inspiring the disadvantaged to realise their own potential has taken him to work with prisoners and those with special needs for many years. Throughout most of Bill's amazing career he has been an ultra-marathon runner, competing with world best runners such as Yiannis Kouros and folk hero Cliffy Young, along with many others in the Six Day and Night Australian Ultra-Marathon Championship at Colac. Today, Bill has helped literally thousands of underprivileged Australians find hope with the simple belief that when you realise someone else thinks you have potential, you'll start believing in yourself. He knows that to be true as it's the story of his own life.