Selected to play Elite International Softball in the NZ ISA U17 Boys 2017 Team

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for taking the time to view our page, my name is Marie Neil and I am the proud single mum of 6 amazing children.

As a parent, my hope is that all of my children experience life to the fullest and have every opportunity to follow their dreams.

In the year 2000, my son Nathaniel was born with Gastroschisis. This condition, is a birth defect of the abdominal (belly) wall. The baby’s intestines stick outside of the baby’s body, through a hole beside the belly button. The hole can be small or large and sometimes other organs, such as the stomach and liver, can also stick outside of the baby’s body.

Gastroschisis occurs early during pregnancy when the muscles that make up the baby’s abdominal wall do not form correctly. A hole occurs which allows the intestines and other organs to extend outside of the body, usually to the right side of belly button. Because the intestines are not covered in a protective sac and are exposed to the amniotic fluid, the bowel can become irritated, causing it to shorten, twist, or swell.

Nathaniel’s case was severe and as a result of the pressure and stress on his tiny body, he developed a heart condition. It took a week for the amazing team of Doctors and Nurses to get all of his intestines etc back inside his body. Through all of the stress his little body was under, he stopped breathing and we nearly lost him. I remember once counting 20 needle marks from IV'S in one of his tiny hands. Hard to believe when you look at him today and he stands at nearly 6 foot!

After countless operations, with his last being only last year 2016, I could not be prouder of his achievements and his strong sense of Mana. At the age of 10, Nathaniel started playing State Tee-Ball in Perth. Since returning to New Zealand, he was introduced to Softball and has since represented Otago consecutively in the U15 and the U17 grades (2 years in each). He has played in The Kings High School 1st Team for the past 4 years and currently plays for The Cardinals Club Premiers. He has also helped coach an U13 Club team along with volunteering his help with umpiring younger age grades and general duties around the park where he can.

Nathaniel’s love and passion for Softball has also influenced his 3 younger siblings and with practicing together on a daily basis, all three of them also received representative honours for Otago this 2016/2017 session. Fundraising has been a very strong constant for his hard working single mother, with all 5 remaining dependent children playing sport at representative level, such as Football, Touch Rugby and Softball, with some children playing more than one! She has supported and raised funds for 7 Representative tournaments just in the past 6 months, with Nathaniel and the Otago U17 Team having two tournaments this season, Mainland in Christchurch and Nationals in Auckland. He was lucky enough to be selected for the New Zealand ISA U17 Team from the National Tournament.

Nathaniel now has the amazing opportunity to wear the 'New Zealand' jersey with the Development Team, with a once-in-a-lifetime playing tour. This dream come true opportunity is a 28-Day tour, beginning in San Francisco & Los Angeles in America, before travelling for another two tournaments in Vancouver and Saskatoon, Canada. Finally the boys conclude their tour by playing our Trans-Tasman rivals in Brisbane, Australia! The only downside is that such a momentous opportunity also consequently comes with a substantial cost attached.

As Softball is a minority sport in New Zealand, players are required to fund their own trips. We have applied for funding through our local community and available sports grants but have unfortunately been unsuccessful in both. We have been selling Scratchy Boards, Raffle Tickets, Lotto Bonus Numbers and making Cheese Rolls as a start towards the funding, but regrettably we haven’t been able to raise near enough. With the amount of previous fundraising that we have undertaken, we feel as though we may have exhausted majority, if not all of our resources.

The name of this site is ‘Give a Little’ and that is exactly what we would like to invite you to do. If you could potentially spare a little portion of money to help make this dream a reality, I am sure this is the kind of experience that will really help shape Nathaniel’s future and give him some amazing memories to carry forward in life, along with the confidence that comes with representing your country on an international level. We are still very busy fundraising ourselves and will continue to do so, updating our target when we have self-fundraised funds to contribute too.

We thank you for taking the time to read our page, even if you aren’t in the position to help, as we know not everyone is, however the awareness and sharing of this page will really help us.