Maurice Priestley

I was born February 10th, 1951 in Gisborne. In early November of the following year, I contracted polio.  I used callipers and crutches until the age of 11, after which I chose to use a wheelchair for mobility. My family and I received support from the East Coast Branch of what was then Crippled Children Society through to my 16th birthday. This included visits from ‘Field Officers’, Mrs. Dixon and Olive Hale.

Thanks to generous fundraising efforts, in 1961 my mother and I travelled by sea to Great Britain where I underwent a series of spinal and other surgeries by Professor James at Princess Margaret Rose Hospital in Edinburgh. After twelve months, more financial support came to our aid to get us home by air when the journey by sea was considered too difficult for me, and because I had stayed so much longer there were no available berths on the ship.

In 1988 I was approached by a member of the CCS Disability Action National Board and invited to participate in a series of meetings with a group of other disabled people to help support and guide the organisation to be more consumer driven. From there I joined the East Coast branch Committee and about the same time in the early 1990s became President of the branch. I was a member of the branch LAC until I moved to Wellington with my wife, Jenny O’Connor, in 2000. I was elected to the National Board and served during the period from 1993 to 2002, encompassing the development of more consumer participation and bi-cultural policy leading up to the restructuring and rebranding of the whole NZCCS organisation. I have been serving on the Wellington Branch LAC/LEC of CCS Disability Action since 2003. In addition to my governance roles, I continue to be involved in the music business. Most of my working life I have had various roles including music performance, recording production, promotion and retail.

Between 2003 and 2017 I worked with Capital & Coast District Health Board in various capacities. From 2003 to 2009 I was the Disability Advisor, supporting the implementation of the NZ Disability Strategy and from 2009 to 2017 the Population Health Advisor, managing Tobacco Control, Healthy Lifestyle, Housing Insulation and other contracts, including a period of five years in the same role supporting the Hutt Valley and Wairarapa DHBs.

I look forward to using my skills and knowledge as I return to the National Board to support CCS Disability Action branches as they move forward into the new model of support. CCS Disability Action has been a large part of my life since childhood and this makes me uniquely qualified to offer what I know from lived experience in order to enhance and improve our emphasis on person directed services.