WheelBlack takes out Attitude Award

Wellingtonian and national wheelchair rugby player Gavin Rolton is the winner of the 2019 Attitude Employee Award.

The awards, now in their 12th year, were presented at a black tie gala event on Saturday at Auckland’s SkyCity.

Rolton was paralysed from the collarbone down in a diving accident in an Australian river more than 10 years ago.

Now a top-performing employee at healthcare provider Drake Medox, he is also a member of national wheelchair rugby team the WheelBlacks, who will compete in Japan in 2020.

He had been to the awards before but not as a nominee.

Rolton started at Drake Medox in 2014, eight years after his accident. He has qualified for the Drake 100% Club twice, which rewards top performers with a trip around the world.

After his accident, Rolton said it was like starting over again, and he had to relearn many basic life skills.

Having always worked and been independent, becoming employed again was like returning to normality.

‘‘I was a tradie, a furniture maker, before my injury. I did not know what to do because I had been so hands-on.’’

He now worked fulltime between the Wellington and Palmerston North offices, travelling around the region speaking to clients and carers.

‘‘It does not have to be hard employing someone with a disability,’’ Rolton said.

‘‘As long as they can get in the front door and there is a toilet, you can work out the finer details.’’

His own disability proved to be an advantage in many ways, as he found it easy to relate to clients.

‘‘I know the frustrations they are going through. I have a caregiver myself, so I have got that insight.’’

When he is not in the office or on the road, Rolton is spinning around the court playing wheelchair rugby. He was introduced to the game by the documentary Murderball, and had made the New Zealand team by 2009.

‘‘I thought: Well, if these guys are doing this, I can do it,’’ – exactly the spirit the Attitude Awards hope to embody.

A New Zealand WheelBlacks team has not been to a Paralympics in 12 years, and Rolton is hopeful he will be selected to travel with the WheelBlacks team to the Paralympics next year.

Rolton said playing kept him fit and motivated, and provided a community of like-minded people.

‘‘New guys come in, and I am one of the older fellas in the team, so I pass my experience on and help them out.’’

Gavin Rolton, who is paralysed from the collarbone down, was pleased to return to a sense of normality when he started his job at Drake Medox.