As politicians yell abuse at each other, a small East Coast community has come together to bring mana to one live debate by fundraising for a boy with severe spinal injuries.
Gisborne Boys' High School student and Poverty Bay Rugby Union Under-16 representative Joel Tibble broke his neck in a collapsed rugby scrum in September.
The 15-year-old frontrower told the Herald on Sunday: "I heard my neck pop and I felt this energy from my neck going right through to my toes, then I was paralysed."
He was taken by helicopter to Auckland's Middlemore Hospital where he spent almost four weeks before moving to the Spinal Unit in Otara.
Tibble could only slightly move his neck and arms - not including his hands and fingers - and doctors were unsure how much feeling he would get back. "It doesn't worry me, I'm happy," he said.
