About Back-Up New Zealand

The idea for Back-Up New Zealand was conceived when Jane Denton became involved with disabled skiing in 1993 while at Otago University. She witnessed skiing not only as a fun leisure activity, but also as a developmental catalyst for people who thought their sporting days were over or who had never felt able to begin with. The impact of their achievements on their self-esteem and confidence was indescribable. Seeing the big effect the winter program had on peoples lives, she looked for summer activities offering the same opportunities.

She found very little provision for activities for people with disabilities within New Zealand and decided to establish a charity that offered people with disabilities the same opportunities as non-disabled people to develop personally using the outdoors as a catalyst. Jane retrained as an occupational therapist and went to work in Britain with the Back-Up Trust to gain experience.

The Back-Up Trust in the UK was set up in 1986 by champion skier Mike Nemesvary after he broke his neck training. Mike gathered the skiing and film community together and made an adaptive ski cart so he could go Back-Up the mountain. He found that the impact this had on his self-esteem was enormous and wanted to pass the benefits on to other people and the Back-Up Trust was created.

Every day people told Jane how much the charity had changed their lives and given them hope for the future. This experience empowered her to return home to create Back-Up New Zealand.

Jane brought two instructors experienced at working outdoors with people with disabilities, from Calvert Trust in Keswick, back to New Zealand. The Calvert Trust runs courses for the Back-Up Trust in the UK and offers other courses for 50 weeks of the year to people with every imaginable disability.

It is from these backgrounds and experiences that Back-Up New Zealand has been formed.