Wish For Fish Charitable Trust founder Bryce Dinneen, People's Choice winner for the Bay Times Person of the Year. Photo/Andrew Warner
Wish For Fish Charitable Trust founder Bryce Dinneen, People's Choice winner for the Bay Times Person of the Year. Photo/Andrew Warner
Spending time with Bryce Dinneen makes you take stock. Talking to him is humbling, emotional and inspirational, and leaves you contemplating, "If only I could be half the person he is in dealing with my problems," writes Juliet Rowan.
Imagine it's a hot day and you've been at the horse races and had too much to drink.
The ocean is beckoning so you strip off your suit and dive into the water, waiting for the cool relief.
On a January afternoon eight-and-a-half years ago, Bryce Dinneen did just that after a stag do at the Wellington races.
Bryce broke multiple vertebrae when he hit his head on the sand in Wellington Harbour, bringing an abrupt end to his first year of a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Otago University.
He was paralysed from the neck down but, after six months at Burwood spinal unit in Christchurch, he regained enough movement in his right arm to operate a motorised wheelchair and considers himself lucky.
"I have function," he says. "I was 29 when I broke my neck. I'd sort of lived my life. I'd had my heart broken. I'd chased girls. I'd had my 21st."
Bryce was a former Tauranga Boys' College pupil and Bay of Plenty senior representative cricketer, and had begun to study for his degree after 10 years working in hospitality.
It doesn't matter what cards you get dealt, it's how you play them.
Sitting with him in his Tauranga lounge below pictures of his sister on her wedding day, Bryce delivers a powerful message: "Just appreciate what you've got because it can change in a heartbeat," he says gently.
It is a phrase he repeats often throughout our conversation, and when I ask if he feels grateful for his life, he says, "Massively, massively."
Though Bryce requires 24/7 care and needs help even to drink, he has refused to be anything but positive since the day everything was, as he puts it, "flipped upside down".
"It doesn't matter what cards you get dealt, it's how you play them," he says. "I do what I do to prove to other people that life goes on."
Bryce Dinneen, Wish4Fish charity founder.
What Bryce does, as well as working 10 hours a week at his parents' cafe, is organise fishing trips for people with disabilities through his charity, Wish4Fish.
Although the ocean robbed him of his mobility, his passion for the sea -- and in particular, fishing -- is undiminished, and in the four years since he established Wish4Fish, the 37-year-old has seen the delight and hope the promise of a day in a boat can bring anyone doing it tough, whether with physical or mental disabilities.
"It just puts a smile on their face and gives them something to look forward to," Bryce says.
Recent recipients of trips include a paraplegic man who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, as well as others institutionalised with mental illness.
On September 5, Wish4Fish is holding a charity fishing competition in Tauranga and inviting entries from the community. There will be $500 prizes for the average weight snapper, tarakihi and kahawai, as well as spot prizes for children.
Wish4Fish is also on the hunt for sponsors to help with Project Noah -- a plan to build its own wheelchair accessible charter fishing vessel.
At present, Wish4Fish takes people out on fishing excursions about once a month, but must hire the boats. With Project Noah, Bryce's vision is to create a sustainable non-profit organisation with an asset that can be made available to schools and other community groups, as well as rented for private charters. "There's no point just having a white elephant. It's there to be used."
Working with Wish4Fish's other trustees, local accountant Greg Finlay and solicitor Nick Earl, Bryce hopes 2016 will be a big year for securing corporate sponsorship.
"I want to prove to people Wish4Fish is not going anywhere. We're here for the long haul. What the trust is trying to achieve is access to the ocean for the whole entire community. It's not about a guy in a chair going fishing with his mates."
Bryce's passion for fishing stems from days on the wharf as a kid, and on the Wish4Fish website, he writes of "the ebbs and flows of emotions that one experiences from fishing", including "the determination to put the bait back on the hook".
It is an apt metaphor for his life and his drive in the face of immense odds.
He says he has always been driven but in the past it was different. "When you're able-bodied, you don't have to rely on anybody else. You can go and do it if you're motivated enough, whereas with a spinal cord injury, I probably have to tell people in my life each day a thousand times to do things. If I want to do some stuff, I have to tell them more and more."
"So you nag them?" I ask.
"In a diplomatic way," he says.
Bryce Dinneen. Photo/file
In practical terms, he needs help with everything, asking his carer twice for a drink during our interview. But in talking about his reliance on others, he stresses he is not after pity, just acceptance. "You get up in the morning and get your kids off to school. I get up in the morning and have to give some instructions to get into my chair. That's just the way it is. I just strive every day to live a normal life."
Nor is Bryce someone to dwell on the past, having to stop and think when his accident happened.
"28th of January, 2007," he finally says after a long pause. "Shows you how much I worry about it now."
Last year, he was nominated for the Bay of Plenty Times Person of the Year, his sister Kate Ward testifying to his unflinching positivity. She visited every day of his 11 months in Burwood and said he never once complained about his situation.
Bryce says his path to acceptance was quick. "Initially it was pretty tough -- I had one bad day -- then I made a promise to myself: Just get stuck into things, just try to be positive about every situation."
"That's pretty remarkable," I say, "that you had just one bad day."
"I get frustrated and I get annoyed at things," he replies, "[but] I've also got a pretty amazing, supportive family and a group of people that provide my care."
Bryce has a team of four carers who look after him around the clock and when I ask if he finds it hard talking about his accident, he says, "Nah, not really. At the end of the day, [it was] too many beers at a stag do."
I want to prove to people Wish4Fish is not going anywhere. We're here for the long haul. What the trust is trying to achieve is access to the ocean for the whole entire community. It's not about a guy in a chair going fishing with his mates.
Bryce had been at the races all day, watching the Wellington Cup for the stag do, when his mates decided to take a swim in the harbour to freshen up before heading into town.
He was wearing a suit and didn't really want to go swimming, meaning he was the last of the 13 friends to strip off and dive into the water.
"I knew I was in struggle street pretty much straight away, but I was just lucky I had a group of people around me who played rugby and I knew a little bit about anatomy and physiology from my sporting days.
"I knew something wasn't right with my neck and my spine so I told them not to move me and keep me in the water and get some help."
Of the group, there are some he does not hear from very often anymore.
"They blame themselves. If you peel back the layers that's why I do what I do. This is why I set up a charitable trust. Every day I go out there and try to prove to people that life goes on," he says again.
In Burwood, he was told to draw strength from his positive outlook, and he says the accident brought his already close family closer.
His mum and dad still find it hard, he says, and although they live with him at Oropi, he organises his own care to avoid relying on his parents.
"You see other situations at Burwood where the family or partners come on-board and be involved heavily in the care. Nine times out of 10, it just busts. The dynamic's not there, there's no respite for the family."
Bryce says spinal cord injuries bring with them unpredictable setbacks, and he strives to maintain good health and routine. "I work really hard to get up at 7, go to bed at 9, just like everyone. While the sun's shining, you've got to make hay."
The idea for Wish4Fish came to him at Burwood and his mission is also to break down stigmas around disability. He says a lot of people think because he's in a wheelchair, there's something wrong with his head, when in fact, his mind "works overtime now".
He says a smile goes a long way "in a society that judges us everyday".
"Sometimes we need to take a step back and smell the salty air and just appreciate what we've got," he says, returning to his wise and lovely refrain.
Wish4Fish Charity Fishing Competition
* Saturday, September 5 * Briefing: September 4, 7pm at Marble Bar, Gate Pa, Tauranga * For entry forms, contact Bryce Dinneen at bryce@wish4fish.co.nz or 021 616 601. The charity website is www.wish4fish.co.nz and there is also a Givealittle page: https://givealittle.co.nz/org/wish4fish
