Letter to the Editor Tuesday February 11, 2014

Missing out

Based on my tragic personal experience, I want everybody in the Far North to know how desperately our Te Hiku Ward needs a community-sized hydrotherapy pool built to physiotherapy standards in the proposed Te Hiku Sports Hub's Aquatic Centre.

I was born in Kaitaia 71 years ago. Two years ago, on March 14, 2012, I had a cerebellum stroke. After spending 12 days in Whangarei Hospital we returned to Awanui. I had to learn how to walk again, because the stroke affected my balance seriously. A physiotherapist told me that daily hydrotherapy exercises in warm water would help my rehabilitation greatly. So I was extremely discouraged to find out it was impossible for me to get any time scheduled in the one-person hydrotherapy pool in the Kaitaia Hospital. The waiting list was months long.

Last year I heard from my sister-in-law, Margaret Moore, who lives in Darwin, Australia, that she unfortunately had a stroke too, the same type of cerebellum stroke and about the same severity as mine. But Margaret is lucky that there is a hydrotherapy pool in her community. She had sessions there every day.

I was stunned to find out how fast and complete Margaret's recovery was compared with mine. Margaret attributes this primarily to the hydrotherapy sessions.

Although I am very happy for Margaret, I feel deep grief and anger that we here in Te Hiku Ward do not have the crucial, basic opportunity of hydrotherapy rehabilitation. We do not have the good chance Margaret had to recover completely. This is tragic.

There are many people here who desperately need access to hydrotherapy. Just on my street alone, five of my neighbours had strokes in the last year. And I know lots of people here with arthritis, back problems, hip and knee replacements, or who have had accidents. All of them would have a much better quality of life, with less chronic pain and disability, if they participated in hydrotherapy exercise sessions regularly.

Numerous friends and family have left here to go live in Whangarei and Auckland because of the lack of health and wellness facilities in Te Hiku Ward. We need to take action now to upgrade our facilities and amenities in order keep our community intact. If we do not do this, who will? It is a good investment that will attract new families to our region as well as keeping our current population safe and well.

ANITA HAROLD

RD1 Awanui