Jeannette Aldridge, Brian Brady, and Tetapua Gillies met Jesse Owens at Duncan Hospital in the 1960s.
Visitors to Whanganui’s Durie Hill might be puzzled by the row of weathered fence posts that stands next to the WWI memorial tower there.
The posts once supported the white picket fence and gateway to the beautiful Duncan homestead named Puke Tiro which operated as a highly successful privately-funded hospital.
Until the late 1970s, children’s laughter echoed around the hilltop as they played on the grounds of the Duncan Hospital for Poliomyelitis.
In the Sarjeant Gallery collection is a watercolour painting by Violet Whiteman depicting the view the children would have seen as they looked out across beautiful gardens to the Whanganui River and the city beyond.
Whanganui physiotherapist Bob Bell, whose father Bill led the team of health professionals at the hospital, reckons the environment was as beneficial to patients as the treatments were.
“It was a beautiful place and the Duncan family’s generosity in providing the setting and funding the hospital should never be underestimated or forgotten.”
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus. The virus spreads from person to person and can infect the spinal cord, causing paralysis.
When the Duncan Hospital opened on Durie Hill in 1953 New Zealand was experiencing its sixth polio epidemic and most of its victims were children.
The first vaccine that would eventually diminish the spread was still three years away. Thanks to philanthropist Thomas Duncan, a Hunterville farmer, children at the Duncan Hospital were receiving the effective treatments pioneered by Australian nurse Elizabeth Kenny.
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.
When Duncan discovered there was a hospital using her practices in America, he sent New Zealand nurse Gwen Dryden and others to train there.
Thomas and Jeannie Duncan set aside their property Otiwhiti Station as a charitable trust to fund a children’s hospital in New Zealand. The first hospital opened at Silverstream near Wellington in 1948 and was transferred to Whanganui when Puke Tiro became available.
Kenny’s cousin Bill Bell was recruited to lead the New Zealand team and travelled from Minnesota, United States, with his wife Mildred and their two sons to set up a home in Whanganui.
Bob and his younger brother Bruce would both later train as physiotherapists and Bruce worked alongside his father at Duncan Hospital while Bob set up a private practice in Whanganui after working at general hospitals.
“Elizabeth Kenny was a very forthright woman and she probably ruffled feathers in the Australasian medical establishments,” Bob said.
“In America, they were more willing to listen and adopt her methods which of course proved to be very effective.”
Bill Bell became a surrogate father to many of his young patients at the Duncan Hospital as they regained strength, mobility and confidence. Bob said he didn’t mind sharing his father with an extended family.
“Dad wanted to give everyone their best chance to recover from the effects of polio and live rewarding lives.
“He succeeded because many of those people went on to great success.”
Jeannette Aldridge has many happy memories of Bill Bell and her days spent on Durie Hill.
“It was called a hospital but my mates and I called it ‘Duncan Home’ or just ‘the Duncan’.
“I don’t remember contracting polio because I was only 5 months old but I do remember having surgery on my feet when I was 2.”
A photo of Aldridge aged 18 months shows a smiling child kneeling beside a paddling pool.
“It seems that I was making good progress so I don’t know why the surgery was deemed necessary. My parents were farmers in Stratford and I suppose they had been persuaded that the surgery was necessary and that I was too young to remember it but I do.
“I remember the awful pain. I was given a general anesthetic for the surgery but there was no post-operative pain relief that was safe for a patient as young as I was at the time.”
Aldridge said she dreaded her first visit to the Duncan Hospital, anticipating another painful and frightening experience.
“I would spend from two weeks to six months of every year there until I was 16 and it became my preferred home.”
Aldridge, known as “Nettie” to her Duncan Hospital family, recalls the exhilaration of walking after months of physiotherapy.
“I don’t have a visual recollection of the occasion but I do remember the feelings. Bill said ‘Nettie’s going to walk’ and everyone was lining the corridor to cheer me on.
“I remember Bill walking behind ready to catch me if I started to fall and he expected me to take about six steps but I was so buoyed up by everyone’s enthusiasm that I think I took more than 20 steps that day.”
“Bill was always very insistent about us keeping up with our exercises but we could always see the benefits and we all trusted him,” Aldridge said.
“Everyone who worked at the hospital was special - the medical staff and the support staff were all like family to us and we got to be ordinary, mischievous kids. Sometimes we’d surprise the staff by sliding down the laundry shute or playing other pranks.”
There were no punishments but there were consequences, Aldridge said.
“We were expected to make amends with an apology if we’d annoyed or upset someone.”
Aldridge keeps in touch with friends she met at Duncan Hospital and remembers those who didn’t make it this far.
She remembers Brian Brady who died at Duncan Hospital aged 22.
“Polio had left him severely physically disabled but he was probably the smartest one of us kids. He was an incredible chess player and none of us could beat him.
“One of the reasons I admired Bill Bell so much was the way he looked out for Brian.”
Aldridge recalls that Brady’s family had placed him in a residential care facility and when Bell visited him there, he discovered that the young man was left to lie in bed every day.
“He didn’t weigh much so Bill gathered him in his arms and brought him back to the Duncan.
“That was how much he cared and I believe he should have been awarded a knighthood for his dedication and hard work.”
Aldridge credits Bell for giving her the courage and confidence to lead a full and active life which has included many overseas adventures including the realisation of a long-held dream to see orangutans in their natural habitat.
“In Sumatra, I saw no disabled people at all, and when I asked about that they replied ‘Because disabled people don’t do what you do - they just stay home’.
“It was my life at the Duncan and Bill Bell’s influence on me as a child that meant I was never going to stay home.”
Life at Duncan Hospital was seldom dull it seems and its reputation attracted many eminent visitors including American running sensation Jesse Owens who had impressed the world by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
“We didn’t know who he was but we were very impressed that he had four gold medals,” Aldridge said.
Bob Bell recalls that Owens presented medals to Whanganui athletes during his visit.
“The hospital attracted a lot of celebrity visitors and quite a few politicians,” he said.
“Unfortunately none of them was able to persuade the government to finance the hospital.”
A downturn in farming profits in the 1970s, coupled with the spiralling costs of running the hospital, led to its closure in 1979.
Thomas Duncan’s grandson Paul Duncan recalls having to break the news to hospital staff.
“My cousin David and I had to deliver the news and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” Duncan said.
“Bill was understandably very upset. We had hoped that it could become an ACC-run rehabilitation facility but the government wasn’t interested.”
After the closure, Puke Tiro was sold and relocated to the Wairarapa. It is now located near Rathkeale College in Masterton where it has been restored as a homestead.
The Duncan family has continued to support the treatment and research into neuromuscular conditions for almost eight decades over five generations. They continue to support polio survivors through the work of the Sir Thomas and Lady Duncan Trust and the Duncan Foundation.
Otiwhiti Station was sold in 2006 and the family continues their support from the proceeds. A book - Otiwhiti Station - The story of a Hill Country station and pioneering polio hospital - was published in 2011.
The Bell family has continued to provide physiotherapy services in Whanganui. Although Bill and Bruce have both died, Bob was practising until recently and said he still provides an occasional consultation. His nephew Greg is now the main practitioner at Bell Physio.
The Whanganui Heritage Trust has plans to fundraise for the restoration of the fence on Durie Hill.
Whanganui District Council’s heritage adviser Scott Flutey said a conservation carpentry approach would be needed.
“This is an 1890s structure at a site with great significance so it’s a job that should be done once, and done correctly.
“Ideally, as much material from the surviving section should be retained as possible with replacements made on a like-with-like basis.”
Flutey said it was hoped that a restoration process could begin this year.
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.
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