When Peter and Sayuri Innes decided to move to the Victorian coastal community of Phillip Island to give their four-year-old son Youki a better life, little did they know he would grow up to become a much-loved town identity.
Born with cerebral palsy, 20-year-old Youki does not let his disability get in the way of living his life.
Before the family moved from Brighton to Phillip Island — best known as an international tourist destination attracting more than 1 million visitors each year to its penguin parade — Japanese food was not available on the island.
Realising the gap in the market, Ms Innes made her dream of starting a Japanese restaurant a reality, inspired by her son's positive attitude and willingness to try new things.
Youki has a part time job mowing lawns at the Phillip Island Adventure Resort, plays drums in a band, plays tennis, rides horses, surfs and is the namesake of his family's popular sushi chain.
Much of Youki's burgeoning independence has been enabled by the initiative of his dedicated parents.
Ms Innes drives Youki to his various activities, dressing him in different outfits for each situation, while Mr Innes, a retired builder, has engineered a number of contraptions to help Youki manage his physical movements.
Youki prefers to move about on a custom-built roller stool with wheels attached to move around indoors.
Mr Innes often disappears into the shed to invent problem-solving gadgets to help Youki do things by himself.
"Youki and I said to Peter, he needs to do the deodorant by himself after the shower, so he comes up with this special lever that presses the top of the spray can, so he can push with the elbow and then the spray comes out," Ms Innes said.
Supportive community makes a difference
Ms Innes said moving to the small, supportive Phillip Island community of Cowes when Youki was four had been the main factor in being able to give him the best life possible.
"When we found out that Youki was going to be in a wheelchair, we started to look around country Victoria for a smaller community for Youki to grow up in," Ms Innes said.
"He was four years old when we moved down here, so he went to local kinder, did the primary school, he did the special school in Wonthaggi.
"He knows many people here, everybody here knows many people here, everybody knows Youki in the community."
As Youki becomes more independent, Ms Innes said her greatest wish for Youki was that one day he would find love, get married and have a family of his own.
"My future picture is for Youki to be a dad. He's a nice man, so I hope that somebody nice will come into his life. I'll be a happy grandma," she said.
