Volunteer of the Year honoured

Margaret Conaghan admits there were tears when in 1968 her husband Eugene was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease tears she was forced to endure alone.
The couple were working a dairy farm near Masterton and raising a young family of five children. A national support group was still 15 years away and the only other person she knew with the disease suffered an advanced case "that scared me about what was coming for us".
"There were probably tears but on my own. My husband was only in his 40s and we had a dairy farm to run and quite young children. I took it more seriously than him and there was nothing but the barest information available on what to do and what it all meant.
"I don't know what it was in me, I just thought I needed to do something so I did and I'm still going."
Tonight Mrs Conaghan is to receive the David Levene Award as Volunteer of the Year at the Parkinson's Society of New Zealand 25th anniversary in Wellington for her unstinting service in Wairarapa on behalf of sufferers and their families.
Her vigil as a volunteer began in 1982 when she responded to an advertisement in a local paper that led to a Wairarapa offshoot of the society then forming in Wellington, and visits by a capital city field officer.
As group chairperson, secretary and treasurer she made contact with other sufferers and their families and partners in the region and after the fledging group were left a substantial bequest, she began a Wairarapa division of the society.
"My husband and I kept the farm for a while, then just some land and let the cows go. As it got worse for him we had to move into town.
"When the Masterton group started there were only four of us and I used to host the meetings in our home.
"But I never did any of this for an award. When I was told I was getting one, I was quite shocked."
The Wairarapa division of the society now has about 60 members, she said, including herself, and some Parkinson's sufferers, who serve on the committee.
The division now has a support group for carers as well, and a specialised vehicle to transport sufferers to events and regular meetings, including physiotherapy and exercise to music in Masterton at which Mrs Conaghan is the regular tea lady.
Her husband Eugene died 11 years ago, she said, but out of an enduring commitment to him she has continued her volunteer work with the Wairarapa support group she was instrumental in founding.
"I wish they had the exercise classes when we started out. Eugene would have loved it I know. And the support groups⁢ really helps to talk to someone who's sitting in the same spot.
"I've made so many friends over the years other carers, sufferers, nurses and it's a such a very long way from reading basic information by yourself in the town library about a scary disease you don't really understand."