Spinal Network News - December 2017
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THE CEO’S COLUMN<br />
FINDING FUTURES<br />
It is tough at the top! So they<br />
say. The toughest part of my<br />
job is finding the time to spend<br />
one-on-one with the folk we<br />
are helping. However, hearing<br />
people’s stories is what keeps<br />
me connected with our “why”<br />
and motivates me to empower<br />
our team to do what they do.<br />
The powerful videos for our annual appeal, conceived<br />
and pulled together so brilliantly by our Community and<br />
Marketing Manager, Mike Brown, are still available to<br />
view on our Vimeo and YouTube channels. Watching<br />
ordinary people recalling their first personal encounter<br />
with an SCI is quite sobering and deeply impacting.<br />
I was wandering down the ward recently having a few<br />
chats, and met Bruce Vallance from Blenheim. One<br />
week before I met him, he had been riding a quad bike,<br />
crashed, and smashed his L1-L2 vertebrae and needed<br />
some hardware attached to his spine to shore it up.<br />
Bruce was discharged from the <strong>Spinal</strong> Unit about 10<br />
days after his accident. He walked out unaided; his spinal<br />
cord had escaped damage and he expected no lasting<br />
issues. Bruce and I thought this was incredible, as did his<br />
wife, Neroli. They were truly grateful for this favourable<br />
outcome. Bruce’s narrow “escape” made me reflect<br />
once again on the impartial nature of spinal cord injuries<br />
where, in an instant, your whole world can be flipped<br />
upside down. I am privileged to lead a remarkable team<br />
who help Kiwis along that unexpected fork in their road.<br />
Another fabulous group of organisations helping Kiwis<br />
with an SCI find their future is the Parafeds of NZ. In<br />
early November, we had the great pleasure to present<br />
Parafed Canterbury with a commemorative chalice<br />
in honour of their 50 years of service to the disabled<br />
community. We were also able to inform the guests<br />
about a Christchurch City Civic Award to be presented<br />
in recognition of 50 remarkable years serving the<br />
community and getting people with disabilities active. To<br />
recognise this outstanding organisation, we established<br />
a new award: The New Zealand <strong>Spinal</strong> Trust Phil<br />
Humphreys Most Valued Volunteer Award. Phil is well<br />
known for his many years of service in the Parafed world<br />
through his volunteering, and it is fitting that he should<br />
be honoured by this new award. It was presented for the<br />
first time at the <strong>2017</strong> Annual Parafed Canterbury Sports<br />
Awards evening to Alex McIntyre for services to sports<br />
development.<br />
Speaking of volunteering, this issue of the SNN is<br />
Suzanne Reiser’s last as sub-editor on our editorial team.<br />
The CEO spending World SCI day in a wheelchair.<br />
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