Disability advocate’s labour of love award
For John McIntosh, getting a New Year gong was so left field that he almost deleted the acceptance email, thinking it was a hoax.
Born with scoliosis – a sideways curvature of the spine – the Hamilton man, now 73, was encased in plaster from his neck to ankle from infancy until the age of 5.
He never thought he would go on to outlive his life expectancy let alone become an advocate for people with disabilities.
But now his long-standing community commitment has been recognised with a New Zealand Order of Merit as part of the New Year 2021 Honours List.
‘‘My parents taught me really early in life to just get along with life. Don’t let your disability impact on your life. Don’t let yourself be known by your disability it’s just something you’ve got,’’ McIntosh said.
‘‘So that’s how I lived my life. I played the drums in bands, I worked in the farming sector, but I didn’t talk about my disability.’’
It was a downturn in agriculture that pushed him towards a career working and advocating in the disability sector.
This switch opened his eyes to the inequalities people with physical and mental disabilities face, slowly prompting him to speak to audiences about his own experiences.
‘‘We aren’t looking for sympathy, but sometimes we do need a bit more support and aren’t always able to ask for it.’’
Since then McIntosh has been a co-founder and an inaugural Chair of Progress to Health, a charitable trust for mental health clients and is a committee member of Age Friendly Hamilton.
He volunteered for the Disabled Persons Assembly Waikato between 2006 and 2018, including serving a 12-year term as president.
He has been a statutory committee member of the Waikato District Health Board since 2006. He was a senior manager at Life Unlimited Charitable Trust, a national provider of health and disability services, and has been responsible for the development of four Disability Resource Centres in the Midland region.
However, what he is most proud of is his involvement in pioneering individualised funding and inspiring others.
‘‘Individualised funding allows people with disabilities to have control over their own