Moyra Platts Trust

Funds from the Trust are used to assist individuals with stroke to attain/achieve that which has been elusive to them through inability to afford or to attain the funding elsewhere.
This could be by way of:

  • Equipment not already covered by DHB’s or grants from other sources.
  • Educational courses which the applicant cannot attain funding to attend either by student loan or grant.
  • Attendance at a conference or event which would be beneficial to the applicant directly.
  • Assistance toward an experience which will enhance their lives (Outward Bound, Spirit of Adventure etc)
Each grant would be made on individual merit. No grant will be made retrospectively. Any grant would be for the specific purpose agreed and if not utilised for the same would need to be repaid by the individual back to the fund. Quotes as well as eventual proof of purchase are necessary. Equipment purchased would be for the use and life of the individual, with the offer of the same back to the Central Region when no longer required either due to lack of use or death. Applications would be received for meetings held four times each year. Applicants to be notified within two weeks of the meeting. The Trust may make a percentage offer to applicants based on the applicants ability to raise funds or make a personal contribution to their project.

Background to the Trust

Moyra Platts suffered a stroke when she was 63 years old. (Her daughter Gillian Bell had left the U.K. to make her life in NZ just 5 months before the stroke happened). Moyra was an individual with a determined spirit who did not let her stroke prevent her from getting on with her life.

During a visit to New Zealand, Moyra made many friends who had experienced stroke and enjoyed sharing her experience and discoveries. Moyra was a person who believed that a disability should not stop one from achieving dreams. She wrote 3 books, returned to driving and travelled across the world following her stroke. She also loved working, on a voluntary basis, with residents of a local Rest Home in the Yorkshire village where she lived.

She did this every week until she was 80 years old. At about the same time she stopped manning the church bookstall in the Methodist Chapel across the road from her house. Moyra died in her own home, at the ripe old age of 93, thirty years after her one and only stroke.

Moyra left a bequest to Stroke Central Region of $36,000 from which the annual interest is used to assist people with stroke to achieve their goals or try new things which may benefit them in their recovery and assist them to participate as fully as they can in the years ahead of them.

For an application form please contact: