Headlands Distilling Co co-founder Dean Martelozzo with cricket great Ricky Ponting at the SpinalCure fundraiser. Photo: Andrew Quilty.
One of the founders of an internationally recognised Illawarra distillery is helping raise funds for and awareness of a cause close to his heart, with the local business using anticipation from a new release to support the mission to find a cure for spinal cord injury.
Dean Martelozzo had just finished his undergraduate degree, booked a one-way ticket to Europe and was preparing for the adventure of a lifetime when a snowboarding accident in the French Alps changed everything.
“I was 20 at the time and like a lot of young guys are, you’re out living that adventurous life, thinking you’re invincible and nothing could ever go wrong,” Dean said.
“It’s the sort of thing that happens to other people.”
Dean was airlifted to a Grenoble hospital where he spent almost a month in intensive care having suffered a traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury causing paraplegia.
“It took me months to get my brain back in order and it’s still definitely not as good as it used to be,” he said.
“But it was a way for to effectively slowly learn this sort of new situation that I was in.”
But rather than dwelling on what had happened, Dean chose to look ahead.
“I work in finance and work with numbers all day, every day, so I’ve always been someone that’s pretty black and white,” he said.
“There’s an accounting term called a ‘sunk cost’ which means once you’ve spent the money on something, the money’s gone and you need to do everything looking at this point forward and ignore the money that’s gone and what’s happened previously because you can’t change that.
“I’ve been able to really apply that to my life. I can’t go back. I can’t change the past. So I just need to do everything I can to make each day better and better and try to achieve as much as possible.”
A few years after the accident he was introduced to SpinalCure after his friend, Xander Beccari decided to ride his bike from Brisbane to Wollongong to raise money for a cause which supported Dean.
Dean later became a community ambassador for the charity which involves many organisers, researchers and spokespeople with lived experience of spinal cord injury.
“Whilst there’s charities out there that will effectively help buy equipment and make life easier to live after you’ve sustained the injury, I’m the sort of person who is out there effectively wanting to find a cure,” he said.
“We’re out there trying to raise money to help find that cure and to put money into that research and try to change the lives of the hundreds of thousands, millions of people around the world that are living life like we do.”
There are more than 20,000 people across Australia who live with the debilitating effects of a spinal cord injury.
The injuries cost the Australian economy $3.7 billion each year, with the lifetime cost estimated to be $75.4 billion.
But if research and treatment could improve muscle function in just 10 per cent of people with spinal cord injury, it would save the country up to $10 billion dollars.
“Spinal cord injury – the analogy of the iceberg couldn’t be more true, you only see the tiny little part of the top that is the visible aspect but there’s so much underneath that people that have a spinal cord injury have to face,” Dean said.
“When it comes to the research, at this stage money is just the limiting factor and being able to increase the money that goes into it would be huge.”
Through Headlands Distilling Co, which he co-founded in 2015, Dean has been able to continue supporting the organisation, as well as other initiatives which reduce their footprint and give back to the Illawarra community.
“We don’t have investors that are counting on us to maximise profits and we don’t have to answer to anyone so if we want to make a decision we can make that decision,” Dean said.
“We’re always just going to do as much as we can to be there and be a responsible company.
“When it comes to SpinalCure I’m just very fortunate that my business partners, they’re happy for me to be involved and we’re able to donate things and donate money to try and strive for that goal of finding a cure.”
Headlands recently donated pre-released bottles of its Spanish Sherry Cask Whisky collection for auction at a SpinalCure event, with the highly anticipated product even more sought-after since the distillery claimed runner-up for the Best Australian Single Malt Whisky at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition with its Illawarra Plum Cask Whisky.
The company has continued its success, with its creative endeavours setting it aside and hopes of broadening its footprint even further.
“We’re effectively just trying to have flavours that are different and keep the quality as high as possible,” Dean said.
“Really we’re just trying to grow the company to share Australian flavour across other parts of the country and obviously we would love to go international.”
To find out more about SpinalCure and how to support the charity, visit the SpinalCure website.
The Spanish Sherry Cask Whisky and other spirits are available through the Headlands Distilling Co website.
