A car accident 44 years ago that left Sandie Waddell a paraplegic was a life-changing moment not only for her but, all this time later it could be said, for hundreds of other New Zealanders with disabilities.
Waddell, who later went on to win six gold medals for New Zealand in international events for disabled athletes, was with friends on a skiing trip in 1978 when the car she was a passenger in rolled while turning a corner enroute to Tekapo in the South Island.
"It lost control and I went out the back door," Waddell of Whangarei who was then in her 20s says. "I don't remember anything about it but the outcome wasn't good: My spinal cord was completely severed and I haven't walked since."
Yet her misfortune soon started to have benefits for others with disabilities – and continues to do so to this day.
Frustrated that help or information for disabled people was hard to access, she decided to take matters into her own hand and, with others in the community, worked to establish the Northland Disability Resource Centre.
Today known as NorthAble Matapuna Hauora, the centre was opened in 1990 and since then has been supporting the disabled community in Northland.
"Back in the day there was nowhere to go for information or to speak with anyone who understood your experience," she says. "People with disabilities were simply ignored, like everyone hoped we would just go away. Certainly, there was no feeling of being able to achieve anything."
Waddell, who in the intervening years held senior management roles with the Ministry of Health, ACC and has worked as an auditor of disabled facilities throughout the country, is still involved with NorthAble as a member of the organisation's Board of Trustees.
Since it was established NorthAble has grown considerably and now offers a range of services available throughout Northland. It is also a leading retail outlet for independent living equipment (through a store in Whangarei) with an e-commerce site able to deliver products all over the country.
Although confined to a wheelchair since her accident, Waddell's life is an inspiration to many. After three months in hospital - "six weeks flat on my back and six weeks in rehab" - she was back at her teaching job in five months.
A keen skier and a Wellington representative in basketball before the crash, Waddell says she decided "just to get on with life."
It wasn't long before her competitive juices were flowing again. She began to train in athletic field events, a decision which netted her six gold medals in the shotput, discus and javelin while representing New Zealand in international disabled meets (the forerunners of the Paralymics) in Perth, Australia in 1980 and Hongkong in 1982.
She also won two silver medals on the track and picked up a bronze medal in both swimming and table tennis.
But it is her work for other disabled people that she is most proud. Of setting up NorthAble she says: "We knew that it all starts with information. Information is power and once people have it and know what to do with it, it is the start of them taking control and making choices about their lives.
"This was before the internet was widely used. People would come to us whenever they needed anything disability-specific and we would hunt out the information for them."
NorthAble CEO Noel Matthews believes the organisation's success is down to its original philosophy that customer service is at the heart of everything. He says the NorthAble team does everything it can to ensure customers have a positive experience.
While the move into retail seemed at first to be at odds with an organisation based on social giving "we could see the penalties people in Northland were facing due to our geography; they couldn't access equipment that was available in the main cities.
"We put on our thinking caps and today we have agencies in key areas (including Kaitaia and Dargaville) plus our mobile van service that travels throughout Northland to reach those who can't come to us," Matthews says. "E-commerce was the next logical step.
"Personal equipment needs are highly individualised so our staff are trained in providing support and advice in a variety of ways (in order) to find the right solution – even if that means providing information on a competitor's product or not making a sale at all."
For more information on NorthAble Matapuna Hauora go to: northable.org.nz while a full range of NorthAble's products can be viewed at: equipmentplus.org.nz