By Ava Cashmore
Antonia “Toni” Arfaras has spent over three decades changing lives across the City of Casey — but this year, her efforts have been officially recognised.
Named as the joint 2025 Casey Citizen of the Year, Toni’s passion for volunteering and stroke awareness advocacy has left an undeniable mark on her community.
For Toni, volunteering has always been standard operating procedure.
“I’ve volunteered even when I was in high school,” she recalls.
“I did some volunteering within the school, like on the SRC (Student Representative Council) and things like that.”
However, her commitment to the community became particularly apparent in the mid-1990s, when her eldest daughter started kindergarten.
That marked the beginning of a long journey of community service — one that would come to be a true passion in her life.
A life-altering moment arrived in 2013, when Antonia suffered a major stroke at the age of 46.
She later experienced three more minor strokes, known as transient ischemic attacks (TIAs).
She wasn’t aware she had had the major stroke until a week later, and is “affected every single day by it.”
Each minor stroke after that, just made Toni’s symptoms worse and worse.
“I go from being able to speak this [interview] with you, to not being able to speak, not being able to understand what people say to me,” Toni said.
“I start losing the ability to walk. I get what’s called left-side neglect, which is where I’m not aware where the left-hand side of my body is, so I’ll bump into things with it.”
Toni’s disability also significantly impacts her ability to partake in many aspects of life people likely would never even realise, without having a similar experience to her.
“I can no longer read books. I was a really, really big reader, I had like, 1,000 books in the house and I got rid of them all because I can’t follow storylines.”
Toni’s disability is often brought on by sensory overload. Loud noises and bustling environments, even a lively family dinner, can bring on debilitating symptoms.
“It can be frustrating because I generally can’t go anywhere by myself. I can’t go for a walk by myself because the wind can bring [stroke symptoms] on, said Toni.
“I can’t drive. Imagine being told that you can’t drive anywhere anymore, and the impact that that has on what you can do.”
Determined to educate others on this often invisible disability, Toni is now a “stroke safe speaker.”
In fact, just last year she won the National Stroke Volunteer Award.
Toni’s stroke advocacy took off in 2016. She is a member of the Stroke Foundation’s Lived Experience Council, and contributes to their Living Stroke Guidelines project.
The project is all about shaping new health policies and research directions.
“It’s about improving treatment and stroke outcomes through better understanding of lived experiences,” Toni said.
However what motivates her above all is the staggering prevention statistics.
“About 80 per cent of strokes are actually preventable. They’re due to lifestyle factors,” she explained.
High blood pressure is the leading cause of strokes, and Toni is passionate about raising awareness of this fact, especially during Australia’s Biggest Blood Pressure Check month in May.
“The World Health Organisation has said there’d be 48 per cent less strokes if high blood pressure didn’t exist,” she said.
“We need people to know the FAST signs — face, arm, speech and time — because they occur in 80% of strokes, said Toni.
“We say ‘time equals brain’, which means that you have to get treatment as quickly as possible.
“You can’t tell what your blood pressure is unless you actually get it taken… It’s a case of going to your doctor or into a pharmacy and asking them to take your blood pressure.”
Beyond health advocacy, Toni is also president of Friends of Wilson Botanic Park, a community group that supports and promotes the popular local green space.
The role reflects her enduring love for the Casey community, nature, and helping others.
Despite the accolades, Antonia remains humble.
So humble, that her daughters had to Facetime Toni while she was in New Zealand, tucked up in her pyjamas, to tell her she had won this prestigious award.
“The girls had said that they were going to do a video call with me, I thought, oh, I’d better put a jumper on just in case anyone else is around. Luckily I did, because the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor were on the FaceTime to tell me I’d won!”
Toni’s story is one of incredible resilience, and action.
From the inside the walls of a high school SRC, to the national stage of health advocacy, Antonia Arfaras continues to advocate and inspire the Casey community and beyond.
