I was born in Epsom, Auckland and I'm still here some forty years on. I have an older brother and have both parents who have supported me through thick and thin and still do! I spent some of my schooling years in a special deaf unit and the rest in mainstream with mixed blessing. I was fortunate to have a very good speech therapist whom I went to for some four years. I had a fairly intense involvement with sport. Athletics, table tennis, tennis, softball, badminton and soccer in which I had great success.

My favourite, and still is, cycling on all levels, from track riding through to touring in South Island over a 3 months period.

Interests also included photography, pottery, yoga, swimming, woodworking, metalworking, fixing bicycles, cars and helping around the house with maintenance. I did a 18 months panelbeating course which did not lead to full time employment, but gave me confidence in my ability to do tree pruning and gardening which I did for ten years or so part time.

It took me some twenty years to realize that some of my chosen pursuits were not the best in regards to my eyesight, but I'm jolly glad I did them all the same!

Over the years, I had good friends with whom I've climbed mountains, skied, kayaked and cycled which played a part in shaping me to having belief in my abilities.

I have Retinitis Pigmentosa which mostly affects my night vision with some peripheral loss combined with a large level of high frequency hearing loss.

Fortunately I have modern hearing aids to counter this. I lip read to some extent but I have relatively normal communication skills. Just out of interest I learned basic sign language.

My hope for Deafblind NZ is that I would be able to help other in a hands on sort of way someday.

I've just started a job in making garden trellis which I was enjoying till I smashed my thumb. Hopefully that will teach me to keep my hands out of the way in this respect.