Neil's Wheels

Why does unfair stuff happen to the nicest people??

Firstly, a little bit about our favourite nice person.

Meet Neil.

Neil is our friend and colleague, and a member of the Transport team at Christchurch City Council.

Neil is one of those people that we all sometimes wish we could be like. He’s packed a lot into his young 67 years.

Neil has always had a love for India, and over his career he has spent many years living there and volunteering as a project manager in local businesses. 21 years ago, while living in Delhi Neil become friends with a local family who lived close by. In 2004, recognising he could do something to help this family, Neil brought one of their sons back to New Zealand, and then in 2006 he brought the other son back. He took them into his family, supported them and helped them create lives here. He loves to help people.

At work, Neil is always helpful and always supportive. He is caring and kind beyond belief. He’s the one person everyone always say ‘he’s just so lovely’ about. He has a cheeky smile and a sassy sense of humour, and he’s a hugely valued member of our team.

He's an adventurous soul, which you'll be able to tell from these photos (and no you’re not seeing double, he’s also a twin). He loves to travel, and a couple of years ago he spent 10 days motorcycling around the Himalayas in northern India, which is not for the faint hearted. He hired a motorbike here to brush up on his skills beforehand, and he was very pleased to tell us when he returned that he'd only fallen off twice in the 10 days!!

Hopefully you're getting a picture of what a great, fun guy Neil is.

And now for the unfair stuff.

Early in 2019 Neil was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease (here’s a link if you want to find out more - https://mnd.org.nz/about-mnd/). Since then, he's been strong and courageous, and determined to keep living a full life for as long as he can. While many of us would have seen this as a reason to finish working, Neil has been unwavering in his wish to carry on working and contributing, and being part of our team.

Neil is starting to prepare for his future, and has recently had a quote of $93,000 to buy and modify a van to fit a motorised wheelchair, so he will still be able to get around when he can no longer walk easily. This is a huge amount of money for anyone to come up with, and our team really want to help Neil with this.

We’re asking our friends, families and colleagues to sponsor us to complete different events in the 2021 Christchurch Marathon on 11th April. Some of us are doing the 10K, and some the half marathon, some are walking and some are running. Some are experienced runners, and some of us have never run or walked this distance before in our lives, but really want to do something to help our friend. This is a fitting event to choose, as Neil is an accomplished runner and has completed marathons all over the world. He was training for the 2019 New York marathon before he was diagnosed, and still travelled to New York and completed 4 miles of the race, on his doctor's advice not to run any further.

We know there are hundreds of worthy charities and causes to donate to these days, and to our team this is as worthy as any of them. This is an opportunity to help out one of life’s truly good people. The words on this page simply do not do him justice. If you’re reading this page, it’s because you know someone who wants to help their friend buy a van so he can maintain his independence. We are extremely grateful for any donations on this page, which will go straight towards helping Neil.

Thank you so much for your support, from the CCC Transport Team.