Family, friends to farewell ‘much-loved’ netballer

A memorial service for former Silver Ferns netballer and TV commentator Tania Dalton will be held on Monday.

The 45-year-old, whose family announced her death yesterday, collapsed while playing touch rugby in Northcote a week ago, suffering an internal carotid artery aneurysm.

She was rushed to hospital, bleeding from her nose and mouth.

She spent most of the weekend in a critical condition and life support was switched off on Tuesday.

A memorial service will be held at North Harbour Stadium on Monday.

Spokesman and business partner Chris Henderson expressed the family’s gratitude for the public support over the past few days.

“It is with overwhelming sadness that we share the news that our much-loved ‘T’ passed away at 10.20am with family by her side,” he said. “Tania has put up the fight of her life, but ultimately, it was a fight she couldn’t win.

“We have reluctantly had to say goodbye. It’s unbearably sad, but we are comforted by how big a life she lived in her short 45 years.

“She lived as we might all strive to — never on the sideline, always in the action, bringing her ‘A’ game as standard, with a big heart and an easy smile, sucking the juice out of every day. We couldn’t be prouder of her or love her more.

“Tania represented her country for 11 years as a Silver Fern, helped to grow a successful business and gave of herself and her time generously.

“Her most important job, though, was as a mum and she lives on in our three amazing kids.”

News of Dalton’s death has been met with shock and disbelief among the New Zealand netball fraternity.

Former national team manager Sheryl Wells said Dalton was a “muchloved person and will be dearly, dearly missed”.

Wells, who managed the Silver Ferns from 1993 to 2004, said Dalton was renowned for her fun-loving nature, and joked she was a bit of a handful to manage at times.

“I actually used to say to her ‘Tania, you taught me everything I know about managing’, because I always had to be a step ahead of her,” said Wells. “She was a lot of fun.”

Dalton’s former teammate and 1 News sports presenter Jenny May Clarkson was in tears as she paid tribute to Dalton.

“T made you feel like you were her best friend. She just lit up a room whenever she was in it.

“Honestly anybody who had any type of contact with her will remember it. And they’ll remember it because it was either funny, she did something stupid or they were having a drink with her. She just lived life to the full, she really did.”