Marina Dinsdale feeding the ducks at Cornwall Park, just 12 days before her death. Photo / Supplied
Marina Dinsdale feeding the ducks at Cornwall Park, just 12 days before her death. Photo / Supplied
Marina Dinsdale gave her newly bought Christmas ham to a struggling family she didn't know in the supermarket carpark.
That is just one example of a woman who devoted her life to helping every person and animal who needed it, and was committed to making the world a better place.
Sadly, after a hard-fought battle with leukaemia, Marina passed away peacefully on June 2.
She was diagnosed at Hastings Hospital with acute myloid leukaemia on March 27, 2019, and was in Palmerston North hospital a few hours later.
Her friend of 40 years, Ali McMinn, went with her and they spent the next four and a half months there while Marina underwent intensive chemotherapy.
"By mid August the treatment was finished, and she was in remission. We came back to Hastings, and slowly returned to normal life," Ali said.
"This year, as lockdown eased, Marina said she was feeling very tired. I urged her to go for a blood test, which she did. The next day [May 15] she got a phone call from her specialist in Palmerston North who gave her the bad news that the leukaemia was back.
"He said he would come to Hastings and see her on June 5 to talk about her treatment options. However, she went downhill very quickly. She did not want to be in hospital, she wanted to be in her lovely home with her pets. So we made that happen.
"One of her sons, Mark, and I, were with her when she passed away peacefully in the early hours of the morning. A tragic loss for all of us who loved her dearly. She loved her family so much and was an amazing mother and grandmother."
Marina Dinsdale with some of her beloved grandchildren. Photo / Supplied
Users of Cornwall Park will be familiar with Marina who has been feeding the ducks, buying grain and bread at her own cost for about 10 years.
What they might not know is that Marina was passionate about Cornwall Park. She walked her dogs there every day and would regularly discuss the state of the Park with councillors and council staff.
"She would not hold back if she felt council and staff were not keeping the park to the standard she expected," Ali said.
"In 2018, when the council proposed to cover over and grass parts of the historic Cornwall Park stream, she was horrified. She began a passionate campaign to reverse the proposal. She single-handedly established the organisation, Friends of Cornwall Park.
"With her passion and energy, she quickly gained widespread support, and the organisation she started now has more than 100 members," Ali said.
Marina Johanna Gerondis was born in Wellington on February 3, 1951. Her father was Greek and her mother a New Zealander. On leaving school (Wellington East Girl's College), she went into nursing.
Newly married, she came to Hawke's Bay in 1969 as her husband landed a job as a health inspector at the Hastings City Council. They started their life here in a council flat in Lyndon Rd East, Hastings.
In 1973 they moved into their new home they had built in Havelock North. They had four children: Stephen, Mark, Adam and Johanna.
Marina worked for World Vision, promoting its humanitarian work in the poorest countries in the world. She travelled extensively in South Asia and Africa, visiting projects that were funded from Hawke's Bay. She was interviewed by Carol Hirschfeld, and TV1 did a feature in its "Sunday" programme about Marina visiting her sponsored child in India. She was a seasoned traveller, and has visited many countries. She connected with people wherever she went, was always looking out for the needs of others, and helping any person who needed it.
In the '80s and '90s, she organised annual fun runs involving most of the Hastings primary schools, inspiring thousands of school children here to run for children in need in the third world .
For a number of years, she visited every urban and rural school from Central Hawke's Bay to Hicks Bay promoting the needs of children. In the year that the WHO was running a programme to immunise the world's children against the six killer diseases, Marina spoke at all of the schools in CHB, Hawke's Bay, Gisborne and East Cape regions, including every little rural school in the back of beyond, promoting immunisation.
"In the 90s, when the Marineland Board proposed to euthanise all the birds and marine animals at Marineland, Marina began a crusade to prevent it She visited radio stations, doing radio interviews to get financial support, throughout the lower North Island, and lobbied tenaciously at the Beehive. Government ministers got involved and intervened, the board chair resigned, and all the birds and marine animals at Marineland came off "death row" and lived out their natural lives," Ali said.
Another huge achievement for her in the '90s came about after she had attended a meeting in Auckland where she came across an organisation providing social assistance to low-income families across Auckland.
"She immediately recognised this was something that was needed in Hawke's Bay. She got hold of John Fawcett, who had set up the Auckland organisation, and paid for him to come to Hawke's Bay. She got the mayor of the day, Jeremy Dwyer, to invite and host about 40 church leaders to a luncheon at the council chambers to hear Mr Fawcett outline the innovative programme. And so that day, Lovelink was established in Hawke's Bay, and is still running to this day."
In 2004 she was a founding member of a Hawke's Bay organisation that provides education and social assistance to children in very poor villages in South Asia. She remained actively involved in that work, visiting the projects there every two years, and was a board member until her death.
For many years, Marina organised the Hastings Blossom Concerts during Blossom Week each September.
"Marina was someone who would give away anything if she saw a person in need. If she saw that a poor family was struggling, she would give them money, fed their children and their pets, and pay for their sick or injured animals to get vet care," Ali said.
"Her home was an unofficial zoo to the countless injured birds and stray animals she has rescued.
"She had a love for music, was in the St Matthew's Choir for many years, and until recently was the sound technician for the Hastings Music Society concerts.
"Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst and Councillor Geraldine Travers attended Marina's memorial service, and intend to have a memorial seat at Cornwall Park in Marina's honour.
