Congratulations Hamish!

The Special Olympics national summer games were held in Christchurch this weekend and one of our lived-experience advisors had some amazing successes! Hamish Taverner won gold medals in the 400m walk and mixed relay, and silver medals in the 100m walk, and shotput.

Hamish Tavernor, Te Ārai advisor and gold and silver medallist at the 2025 Special Olympics national summer games.

Hamish works for Standards and Monitoring Service, and other organisations involved in developmental evaluations of disability services.  He is also a committee member of the Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability, and life member of People First New Zealand Ngā Tāngata Tuatahi. We are very fortunate that he is supporting Nic McKenzie’s project exploring priorities for palliative and end-of-life care for people with learning disabilities. Nic reflects that he is ‘an all round wonderful leader within the community of people with learning disability and an amazing asset to her team’