Sir Thomas and Lady Duncan Trust members celebrate the long service of Paul Duncan (centre) with Jeannie Warnock, Jude Duncan, Geoff Duncan, Joe Duncan, Koo Duncan, Angelina Greer and Angus Duncan. Photo / Bevan Conley
Sir Thomas and Lady Duncan Trust members celebrate the long service of Paul Duncan (centre) with Jeannie Warnock, Jude Duncan, Geoff Duncan, Joe Duncan, Koo Duncan, Angelina Greer and Angus Duncan. Photo / Bevan Conley
For six decades, Paul Duncan has sat on the board of a trust providing vital health services and research. He speaks to Liz Wylie as he prepares to hand the responsibility over to the next generation.
Paul Duncan was a young Hunterville farmer when he became a member of theSir Thomas and Lady Duncan Trust in 1960.
He recently stepped aside after giving 62 years of service to the trust founded by his grandparents to establish a hospital that provided ground-breaking polio treatments.
He is modest about his long service and the fact that he was the chairman of the trust when Otiwhiti Station was sold in 2006.
The 1700-hectare property on Turakina Valley Rd in Hunterville had been providing funds for specialist health services and research since 1946, and the trustees wanted to ensure the support would continue.
The sound investments made with proceeds from the sale have funded the trust’s work in supporting people living with post-polio syndrome and a range of neuromuscular conditions.
“We have looked for the gaps in Government funding and have always aimed to ensure that the money benefits those who need it most,” said Duncan.
“The money supports research into causes and possible cures for neuromuscular conditions, as well as the needs of those with post-polio syndrome.”
Members of the fifth generation of Duncans will now be serving on the trust, and Paul said he was happy to leave the work in capable hands.
“It’s never been onerous work, but it has required a certain amount of dedication.
“I’m happy to hand it over to the next generations.”
New polio cases declined after the Salk vaccine was introduced in 1955.
Duncan first joined the trust with his cousin Peter Grace, who had contracted polio as a 10-year-old. Grace served on the trust for around 15 years before moving to England, where he became a renowned polo player and then went on to teach and direct at Ascot Park Polo Club in London.
“I well remember when Peter and other children we knew were contracting polio,” Duncan said.
“My grandfather Thomas read about the pioneering work being done by Australian nurse Sister Kenny.”
Sister Elizabeth Kenny’s methods of treating polio patients with warm moisture and movement therapies rather than keeping them immobilised with splints and braces were not accepted in most parts of the world, but when Thomas Duncan discovered there was a hospital using her practices in America, he sent New Zealand nurse Gwen Dryden to study there.
In 1945, Thomas and Jeannie Duncan set aside Otiwhiti Station as a charitable trust to fund a children’s hospital in New Zealand.
After Thomas was knighted for his services to charity, farming and the meat industry in 1950, the original Mr and Mrs TA Duncan Hospital Trust became the Sir Thomas and Lady Duncan Trust. The Duncan Hospital first opened in Silverstream near Wellington and moved to Puke Tiro on Whanganui’s Durie Hill in 1953.
The development of the Salk vaccine for polio in 1955 saw a rapid decline in new cases, and the hospital broadened its services to treat conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
A downturn in farming profits in the 1970s, coupled with the spiralling costs of running the hospital, led to its closure in 1979.
Despite numerous obstacles and setbacks, the Duncan family has continued to sustain the work of the trust, and as a “bunch of farmers”, they entered the publishing world in the 2000s, recruiting author Vera Hunt to help them produce Otiwhiti Station - The story of a Hill Country station and pioneering polio hospital, published in 2011. Royalties from book sales were designated for post-polio support.
Paul Duncan’s family members and fellow trustees recently gathered to celebrate his long service at the Rutland Arms in Whanganui.
“I stepped down last year, but this was the first opportunity for everyone to gather in one place,” he said.
“My father retired after [a] long [period of] service as the trust chairman, but he couldn’t stay away. He would sit close by during meetings with his newspaper pretending to read, until we noticed he was holding it upside down. I won’t be doing that.”
Auckland-based company director Joe Duncan is now chairman of the trust. He is a founder of the Duncan Foundation, a national support service for people living with neuromuscular conditions.
Liz Wylie is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. She joined the editorial team in 2014 and regularly covers stories from Whanganui and the wider region. She also writes features and profile stories.
