Obituary: Margaret Gadsdon

Margaret Gadsdon was honoured by the Queen for her community work.

* Margaret Gadsdon, QSM, medical fundraiser. Died aged 81.

During Albert Gadsdon's heart operation at Green Lane Hospital in 1983, the one piece of equipment necessary to save his life was already in use.

A heart pump was borrowed from the Mater Hospital and rushed across town in the gardener's van. The operation was successful.

Margaret Gadsdon, Albert's wife, was so horrified by this shortage of essential apparatus that she vowed to do all she could to make sure it did not happen again.

At that time, the cost of a heart pump was $28,000. Mrs Gadsdon set up a raffle, arranged prizes and coerced family and friends to sell tickets.

By the time she had raised the money, the price of the pump had gone up to $40,000. The extra was raised by a lottery, a further price rise was covered by the hospital, and the heart pump was bought.

More fundraising followed, this time for five radio-controlled insulin drips for Middlemore Hospital which could be used by pregnant women.

Mrs Gadsdon found she now needed help to organise such large tasks, so she set up a trust, the Hospital Equipment Comforts Theatre or Research (Hector).

At the time of Mrs Gadsdon's death last week, the Hector Trust had raised more than $2 million.

Raffle tickets alone were not bringing in enough money, so Mrs Gadsdon and her friends ran stalls at Otara and Panmure selling clothing, jewellery, china and handicrafts, many of them made at home.

They set up stalls in Auckland's central hospitals, sometimes running into trouble with hospital administration, which viewed the stalls as fire hazards and the stall-holders as security risks.

Margaret Gadsdon was born in Kent, England, and worked in London before her marriage to Albert in 1946.

The Gadsdon family, with three children under 4, came to New Zealand in 1952, living first in Parnell and then in Manurewa, where they ran a haberdashers.

A lot of the work fell to Mrs Gadsdon, as her husband, who died in 1987, had health problems. She had health problems too, having an eye removed because of melanoma in 1957. One of her last good deeds was to arrange the purchase of two wheelchairs for the hospice where she spent her last days.

Mrs Gadsdon was awarded a QSM in 1987. She is survived by her four children, 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.