Being on a dialysis machine for 10 hours a day doesn't stop social worker Maggie Kemp. Photo / Paul Estcourt
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Maggie Kemp leaves her Otara home at 6.30 every morning to go to her work in the community.
There are women who won't go for their breast-screening to cajole, men to convince that kidney disease is not the end of the world, and Otara Community Health Board meetings to
attend.
Not a bad effort for a woman who spends 10 hours every night on a dialysis machine.
"I've been dialysing for two years now, and it doesn't slow me down at all. I tell other people with kidney disease, you can do something about it, you can take control.
"The machine only does 5 per cent of the work, you have to do the other 95 per cent. Eat right, exercise, and listen to your doctors."
Maggie, 67, of Ngapuhi and Ngati Hine descent, has lived in Otara - "beautiful, beautiful Otara" - for 40 years.
She has been a Maori representative on the community health board for five years, and before that spent 20 years in Kohanga Reo.
She helps at the local women's refuge, and has worked with Plunket to ensure that sometimes isolated women get the support they need with their babies.
She also helps co-ordinate breast-screening access for Ngati Whatua, and it can be hard work.
"The Pacific Island women are happy to go for their mammograms, but our Maori women are not so good. I ask them why they haven't kept an appointment and they say they can't afford it. Well, I say, you can manage to buy those five packets of cigarettes on your table."
So Maggie drives the women to their appointments, has a cup of tea afterwards, then warns them: "I'll be back for you in two years. You can't run away from me."
Tracey Rewiri of Kaiwhakahaere Health Promotion, who proposed Maggie for the Unsung Heroes series, says that Maggie sees barriers as doors waiting to be opened.
Maggie's faith in God and fellowship in the Destiny Church provide support, but the underlying reason for her work is simple.
"Collaboration is the key. I love helping people. When your work becomes your passion, it's easy."
