Fonterra went out of its way for its biggest fan, Waikato resident Andrew Oliver. Photo / Supplied
Fonterra went out of its way for its biggest fan, Waikato resident Andrew Oliver. Photo / Supplied
A kind gesture by the world's largest dairy exporter has made one Waikato family's life much easier, and their biggest fan very happy.
For the past 15 years Andrew Oliver has greeted the milk tanker at his front gate every evening.
The family's sheep dog alerts him to its arrival, and Andrew puts on his boots and hat, jumps on his trike and honks his horn, before he greets the tanker driver with a picture he draws for them each day.
Andrew has Fryns-Aftimos syndrome, which is a rare chromosomal condition. He is the oldest known to have it, and one of about eight living with the condition in the world.
At 35 years old, he has the mental age of a 6-year-old and suffers many other symptoms such as epilepsy.
Andrew Oliver has Fryns-Aftimos syndrome, which is a rare chromosomal condition. Photo / Supplied
Andrew is cared for by his parents, Ken and Deirdre Oliver, on their farm in the Te Rapa district of Hamilton.
Each night Andrew's parents help him to the farm gate, doing everything to insure his safety and fulfil their son's nightly routine - as he won't go to bed until he's seen the tanker.
"If the tanker hadn't come then you couldn't put him in the bath, because if it came while he was in the bath then it would be a national disaster," Ken said.
"You were basically hamstrung until it came. It was absolutely vital to him."
After many years, the nightly routine started to become a struggle for the Oliver's, with the milk tankers coming at varied times and sometimes at early hours of the morning.
One day Ken hit breaking point, and made an SOS call "out of desperation" to Fonterra.
"Deidre was in hospital so I was trying to do absolutely everything, and it built up," he said.
"I'd hit the wall and so I phoned the call centre and actually started crying on the phone, I was just so shot.
"I just said, 'Look, my life has just become impossible' and just explained what was going on. I need sleep and I can't get sleep until this boy's in bed."
Despite the odds, the dairy co-operative stepped in to help.
They changed their milk tanker schedule in the entire district so that Andrew would go to bed on time.
Barry McColl, general manager of transport and logistics, said the company went out of their way to help because "obviously when you are trying to get someone to bed, a collection at 2am in the morning doesn't cut it".
"We looked at that, and given it is in the Waikato where there are lots of farms and multiple factories, it wasn't actually a big deal to do something like that," he said.
"They could have just said no, but in this case it hit all of the right people and got all of the right responses, and when you look back at it, it wasn't that difficult to put in place."
While it wasn't a big deal to the company, Ken said it was life-changing for the family.
"Here we were trying to have a life, look after our son, and run a business, and we needed to have some sleep at some stage.
"We are now always picked up around 8 – 8.30pm. It has made a huge difference and we are very grateful."
Ken said one of the Fonterra drivers also went out of his way to fundraise for a new trike for Andrew after noticing it was a bit worn out.
"He had kind of grown out it and it was getting a bit worse for wear, and this driver said, 'Hang on, why shouldn't he have a decent new one' and it just took off."
Ken said the company raised enough money to get two trikes, and fixed Andrew's old one - which was donated to a local special needs group.
"We were welcomed into the Fonterra headquarters and treated like we own the place. It didn't have to be like that, but people chose to make it like that," he said.
Ken said the tanker drivers were all briefed on health and safety procedures and what to do if Andrew had a seizure during a tanker visit.
"The drivers and their reaction to Andrew is incredible, because it would have possibly been better from a safety perspective to say he couldn't be there – but they welcomed him with open arms and have talked through how to make it safe," he said.
"It's not the easy option, but it is the good option."
