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Please help Paul on his Road to Recovery

$8,011 donated
Given by 104 generous donors in around 6 months

A vicious, random attack has left Paul with a serious brain injury in hospital. Please help him on his long road ahead towards recovery.

Auckland

In the early hours of Sunday 10th April 2016 Paul Margison and a friend were viciously attacked while walking home from the Papatoetoe Softball Club. This random attack resulted in both Paul and his friend being knocked unconscious. When his friend came to, he found Paul unresponsive. Paul proceeded to be transferred to Auckland Hospital critically injured with a severe brain injury, where he initially spent many days unconscious in intensive care. He has been slowly waking up, and is now starting to embark on his long road to rehabilitation and recovery.

This page has been set up to help a man that has spent his life doing things for others, and who lived and breathed football and sport. Over the years Paul has consistently given up his spare time to coach a huge number of football teams - including womens, mens and childrens teams from Papatoetoe, Clendon, Onehunga Sports and Otahuhu Football clubs just to name a few. Often he would coach multiple teams in one season, spending almost every night and all weekend on a football field, somehow even finding time to play footy himself for Papatoetoe, as well as tennis and softball in the summer. He would often put his own personal funds towards training gear and even soccer boots for players in his teams.

For many players he has been the only coach they have known, and his laid back, dedicated, humorous, and selfless attitude is what keeps his players coming back to play with him year after year, such as the Clendon Cats Women's Football team, who he has been with for 10 years. Paul is not just a coach to many of these players, but also a part of their family.

As one player quoted when describing how humble Paul is:

"Kaore te kumara e korero mo tona ake reka - The kumara does not say how sweet he is"

Paul has two loving children Jay and Kendall that live in Palmerston North and have had to travel to Auckland to support Paul. Paul also lives with and cares for his Mother in Papatoetoe. Some of the money fundraised will go towards Paul's family to assist with costs such as flights, so that they can continue to support him in this tough time.

The money raised will also go towards any rehabilitation or living costs or equipment needs that are unfunded by other sources. Paul has always been such a fit and active person, evidenced by the sports he is still playing even though he is now aged in his 50's. His job as a Fed-Ex driver is also very active. This makes the physical challenges ahead for Paul even more difficult to face. We hope that this money raised can make Paul's journey towards recovery that little bit easier for him and his family.

Amber Roberts' involvement (page creator)

Paulie has been the beloved soccer coach of my Clendon Cats women's football team for 10 years. He is more than just a coach to us, but also a part of our family. We would like to create this page to help him in his recovery and rehabilitation.

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Latest update

Home time  9 September 2016

Hi everyone,

I'm very pleased to let you know that Paul was finally discharged back home a couple weeks ago. He is still making progress every day, and helped so much by the support he has from his family and friends.

Here is an update from Kendall from a few weeks ago (sorry for the delay!):

Dad has been settling into his first week back at home.

He has been getting to know his new fabulous therapy team and they have got a really great plan for him over the next 6 months to help him get back into everyday life. They will be working closely with him to help him adjust to his brain injury and learn how to cope with the new challenges he will be facing.

Dad may seem absolutely fine from the outside but his biggest hurdle at the moment is his lack of insight about his brain injury and how it is going to affect him, he hasn't yet acknowledged that he has more steps to achieve, and to accept he won't be able to go straight back into his everyday life pre-injury ie- coaching, work and playing sports.

To help you understand him more-

Dads injury is to his frontal lobe of his brain. This affects his problem solving skills, cognitive functions, attention and short term memory. Dad has difficulty recognising social cues in social situations and difficulty knowing when it's appropriate to ask some questions.

He also loses track of conversations when distracted and needs support with redirection.

His therapy team will work hard with these areas of adjustment and along with the support of you guys he is and will do really well!

Give a little donations-

A small amount if your generous donations have been helping Jay and I travel to Auckland every weekend to support dad, learn and adjust with him during hospital and rehab. This has been invaluable and such a massive weight off our shoulders. Now that he's home with a complete therapy team we won't have to travel as often. Therefore we still have a large chunk of your donations that we will save for later down the track to help with any area of Dads therapy that is not funded by ACC that we think he will need. We will play this by ear.

Thanks again on behalf of dad and us for everyone's amazing support. We can't thank you enough ??

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Latest donations

bob
bob on 19 Sep 2016
all the best Paul, bob
$5
Guest Donor
Guest Donor on 21 Jul 2016
Private
Ashley Simons
Ashley Simons on 28 Jun 2016
Ash completed a 100km run/walk challenge and chose to donate her winnings to you. Stay strong!
$110
Guest Donor
Guest Donor on 11 Jun 2016
$100
Jeff and Trudy Strom
Jeff and Trudy Strom on 01 Jun 2016
Have been thinking of you all and want you to know all our love and best wishes have been and are with you Paul and your support whanau as you travel the journey to recovery Aroha nui Jeff and Trudy Strom xxxxxxx
$100

Who's involved?

Kendall Margison's avatar
Paying to a verified bank account of Kendall Margison on behalf of Paul Margison and family
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This campaign started on 22 Apr 2016 and ended on 31 Oct 2016.