Pāpāmoa mother Holly Pass, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at 27, graduated as a police officer as a 38-year-old.
Pāpāmoa mother Holly Pass thought being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at 27 would hold her back. But after graduating as a police officer at 38, Pass says, “It’s never too late to give something a go.”
Holly Pass will never forget the moment she was told she had MS.
It was May 2013, and Pass was getting an MRI scan at Tauranga Hospital.
“I remember the lady said: ‘Oh, your Mum has MS, right?’. And I remember just tears rolling down my face.”
The 39-year-old said lesions were found in her brain. Fluid taken from a lumbar puncture confirmed her MS diagnosis.
“It was a big, big shock.”
MS is a chronic neurological condition affecting the central nervous system. The immune system attacks the protective layer of nerve fibres, disrupting communication between the brain and body.
The condition affects more than 5000 New Zealanders, according to MS New Zealand (MSNZ). There is no cure.
Originally from Britain, Pass moved to New Zealand in February 2013.
Her initial symptoms included being uncharacteristically “incredibly tired” and having “really weird” pins and needles in her arms and fingers. She also felt irritable.
With a background in health and fitness, Pass said she thought a trapped nerve was causing the pins and needles.
She said while MS was not hereditary, there were “slight alarm bells” when she started getting symptoms.
She went to the doctor and was “immediately” transferred to Tauranga Hospital, where her diagnosis was confirmed.
“I really didn’t think it was that.
“It’s all very hidden, MS ... the early stages anyway, until the mobility changes.”
For treatment, Pass said she self-administered “horrible” daily injections for two years.
“They were painful, it was inconvenient, my symptoms were okay, but I guess the stress of ... the medication just triggered me to just still not be very well.”
She came off the medication when she and her partner wanted to have a child.
Pass gave birth to her son in 2018. When he was 9 months old, she relapsed.
Her eyes would blur, she had a “foggy brain” and felt nauseous. She also experienced “vertigo-type feelings”.
“You literally can’t drive, you can’t walk, you’re just bedbound.”
She was treated with intravenous steroids for three days, then “tapered off” with tablets.
Pass said she started taking a daily capsule called Fingolimod in December 2018.
“I’ve not come off it.”
Pass said the capsule helped keep her brain lesions “at bay”.
Fatigue – described as hitting a “brick wall” in the afternoons – was the main impact of MS for Pass.
She would nap on her days off and used “adrenaline” to “keep going” at work.
Pass said becoming a police officer had been in “the back of my mind”, but she was waiting for the right moment while raising her son.
She started her police training in 2023.
“I didn’t think it was going to be possible, but I just thought, ‘Nah, I’m going to give it a go’. I thought the MS would hold me back.”
She passed the medical and fitness tests required to become a police officer.
For one test, Pass said she did not feel ready, but she “smoked the run by, like, two minutes”.
“That was then even more of a drive to keep going.”
She started working as a police officer in March 2025.
While it was still “early days”, Pass said she most enjoyed “the effort that we put into an individual, whether or not they’re an offender or a victim”.
“We do so much behind the scenes for that one person ... ”
Pass said her career change showed “it’s never too late to give something a go”.
Her mother, Janet Pye, told the Bay of Plenty Times her daughter’s career change was “incredible”.
“You think of the health issues ... quite extraordinary.”
Pye, 70, said she was diagnosed with MS at age 40, and it had been 20 years since she’d had an MS “attack”.
“In many ways, Holly and I are both very lucky.”
Royal New Zealand Police College director and superintendent Sam Keats said Pass was an “exceptional human being” who met the college’s high recruitment standards to join and graduated as a police officer this year.
Keats said the college was “incredibly proud” of Pass for sharing her story and raising awareness for MS.
“We hope that Holly’s story not only inspires those with MS but also encourages others [who] assumed that a career with police might not have been possible because of pre-existing medical conditions to take a closer look at our recruitment criteria.”
Keats said medical conditions were always considered on a “case-by-case basis”.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.