Nicola McKenzie, Natalie Gauld, Andrew Newman, Matt Rees-George, Carey and Peter Church, Karyn Taylor, Janet and Mark Hanlon. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Natalie Gauld knew there was something seriously wrong with her when two years ago she could not lift a kayak onto the top of her car.
The pharmacist – recognised in the New Year’s Honours for her work on improving access to medicines – initially put it down to the type one diabetes she had been diagnosed with three years’ previously.
Natalie Gauld on the Te Awa River Ride.
She was on a low carbohydrate diet because of her diabetes and getting multiple muscle cramps. But when the cramps morphed into other parts of her body and she could not undo a button on a pair of shorts, she took to Dr Google.
Motor neurone disease was top of the list. Doctors initially ruled it out though. And while part of Gauld wanted that to be so, she knew in her heart they were wrong.
“People don’t want to jump into motor neurone. You try to cut out everything else you possibly can first. They thought because of the diabetes it was some sort of neuropathy.”
An official diagnosis came in March last year. Motor neurone disease is a degenerative terminal disease which affects the brain and nerves progressively damaging the nervous system leading to muscle weakness and paralysis. There is no cure.
Gauld, who has always been physically active, was in Cambridge with husband Matt Rees-George on Saturday.
The Auckland couple are experiencing many of the country’s Great Rides while she can and helping raise funds for Motor Neurone Disease New Zealand. They have already gone past the $15,000 goal and ridden more than 1100 kms.
She uses a custom-built electric all-terrain three-wheeler called a Motom Trilobite – top speed 35kph – which was designed by Auckland University Bachelor of Engineering graduate Andrew Nash, who has a progressive disability himself. Rees-George has had to buy an E-bike to keep up.
Follow Natalie’s fundraising page.
Natalie Gauld – Motor Neurone Disease fundraiser.
They started in January with a ride on the Ohakune Old Coach Road before heading to the South Island where they road 500km of cycle trails.
“I’m slow progressing so I’m doing all I can to enjoy life, including riding as many trails in New Zealand as I can and still getting great pleasure out of work.”
She was joined on the Te Awa ride by several friends including Tamahere dentist Karyn Taylor and Cambridge financial planner Carey Church. Her sister Tracey Gauld was an optometrist in Cambridge several years ago.
“I enjoyed the crunch of the autumn leaves under my tyres, the kotare flitting along the track in front of me at one point, piwakawaka in the trees and the Waikato River alongside. The boardwalk through the trees was nice and wide and it felt great to be amongst the trees,” said Gauld.
Gauld is an honorary senior lecturer in pharmacy at Auckland University, a paediatrics senior research fellow and has a PhD. She led a huge catalogue of drug reclassifications in collaboration with primary care organisations, government and fellow researchers and was influential in getting many medicines reclassified so they can be dispensed in pharmacies – including oral contraceptives, and Viagra which is also known as Silvasta.
She is currently evaluating a pilot of midwife-prescribed, pharmacist-administered anti-D immunoglobulin to pregnant women who are Rh-negative to prevent Rhesus disease and working on a study to assess the rates of hepatitis C in needle users.
Follow: Natalie’s fundraising page
Natalie Gauld, husband Matt Rees-George and Karyn Taylor. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
