Leukaemia girl wins inaugural uni scholarship

university-of-waikato

Thu Feb 19 2009 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Leukaemia girl wins inaugural uni scholarship

Thursday, 19 February 2009, 12:49 pm
Press Release: University of Waikato

Media Release
February 19, 2009

Two years after being diagnosed with leukaemia, and just days out from the end of chemotherapy treatment, Paige Beanland will start at Waikato University with two scholarships under her belt.

The 18-year-old is the inaugural winner of Waikato University’s newly-created Paul Day Melville High School Scholarship for Excellence. Paige was nominated by Melville principal Clive Hamill for the $5000 cash scholarship.

Paul Day was one of Waikato University’s visionaries – he battled for Waikato to have its own university when he ran the Hamilton branch of Auckland University in the early 1960s. Waikato University was established in the mid-60s and Melville High School was the original site of what was Hamilton’s Teachers College (now Waikato University’s School of Education). Paul Day, who died last year, had been a professor at Waikato from 1970, and was made an emeritus professor when he retired in 1980. He was presented with an honorary doctorate in 1998.

Paige will study early childhood teaching at Waikato University, and is looking forward to starting classes in the next couple of weeks. (SUBS FROM FEB 23) Paige has missed many months of school study because of her illness, but still achieved Proxime Accessit to Dux at Melville High School and is keen to get into the swing of university life.

She plans to live at home with her parents David and Dianne. David Beanland was one of the seven Hamilton firefighters badly hurt last April when the Icepak Coolstores at Tamahere exploded. He remains off work with his injuries but hopes to return to firefighting within the year.

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It’s been a testing couple of years for the Beanlands – Paige was diagnosed with leukaemia in February 2007, and came close to death at one stage in her treatment last year, with extremely high blood sugar levels. She is temporarily using crutches for mobility; high doses of steroids during treatment mean some parts of the bone in her knees have died but will regenerate.

Paige will take chemotherapy pills until mid-March and will then have regular checkups to see if she remains free of leukaemia.

University Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford says Paige is obviously a fighter and is a very worthy recipient of the inaugural Paul Day Scholarship.

Prof Crawford says the university is pleased to be able to honour the memory of Paul Day. “I know the Day family are pleased with this acknowledgement of his years of hard work for this institution. And we’re doing it in an entirely practical way – by helping a Hamilton student achieve her goals through study.”

Paige has also won a $3000 School Leavers’ Scholarship and she plans to use the two scholarships for fees over the next couple of years.

She had deliberated about following in the footsteps of her sister Lauren or teacher mum Dianne. “I had been tossing up between training to become a vet nurse or an early childhood teacher, so when I was offered the Paul Day scholarship it made the decision a lot easier.”

Waikato University’s A Semester officially begins on March 2.

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