Today's Birthday 3/2
Today's Birthday, February 3: Australian youth activist and author Les Twentyman (1948 - ).
High-profile activist Les Twentyman has been the pre-eminent face and voice of Australian youth issues for the past three decades, allowing him to pass on his unique insight to the nation's leading lawmakers.
The 70-year-old youth warrior, who has unsuccessfully run for Victorian parliament, last July had Opposition Leader Bill Shorten launch his memoir, The Mouth That Roared, with the Labor boss saying it continued his legacy for "telling it how it is".
Born the eldest of five children to fruit shop owners in 1948, Twentyman was raised in Melbourne's western suburb of Braybrook and grew up a fan of VFA club Williamstown.
Like many Melbourne boys, he developed an early obsession with Australian Rules football and won a best and fairest and goalkicking award at age 15 for local club Albion.
Twentyman's football talent saw him actively recruited by VFL club Footscray, a team he still supports as the modern-day Western Bulldogs.
Ultimately, he moved into physical education teaching at St Paul's College where he forged his first connection to disaffected youths.
In 1984, the sports teacher and then Western Times newspaper owner Ron Coleman raised funds for 10 young homeless people in Sunshine.
This initiative led to the foundation of the 20th Man Fund, renamed the Les Twentyman Foundation in 2016.
The support organisation has helped 17,000 at-risk youths finish high school and a further 500 complete university degrees since its inception, according to its website.
Twentyman, a former state finalist for Australian of the Year in 2004, survived a serious health scare in 2009 - saved by an experimental drug after being given two hours to live following lap-band surgery complications.
In 2012, his foundation's credibility took a hit when an employee pleaded guilty to making a false police report, claiming he'd been stabbed in a gang attack.
But with the disgraced worker sacked and disavowed, Twentyman - twice a stabbing survivor himself - pushed on with his cause and the following year introduced the Dalai Lama at a Melbourne conference.
In the past 30 years, the 1994 Order of Australia recipient has regularly appeared in advertisements, articles and documentaries to give a street-savvy view on the youth issues of homelessness, drug abuse, cyberbullying, weapons and social welfare.
