New Year's Honours for MAS Members

Nine MAS Members have been recognised in the New Year’s Honours List for their public service in fields ranging from nursing to surgery, mental health advocacy, and international aid and development.

Our warmest congratulations to all the recipients and thank you for the contributions you have made over many years. We’re honoured to be able to support those who have given so much to New Zealand society.

Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Rachael Le Mesurier for services to governance, the community and health.

Ms Le Mesurier has devoted almost 30 years of service to non-governmental organisations promoting health, human rights, social welfare and development.

She has served as the National Director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association of New Zealand, CEO of Citizens Advice Bureau New Zealand, a Regional Director of Family Planning New Zealand, and Executive Director of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation.

She has been Executive Director of Oxfam New Zealand since 2014, during which time she has overseen New Zealand's aid response to natural disasters and long term development in the South Pacific and South Asia, as well as refugee support in Bangladesh and Syria with advocacy on wealth inequality and climate change.

Murray MacCormick for services to health, particularly surgery.

Mr MacCormick has been a surgeon for 45 years, specialising in breast cancer and vascular surgery.

He has worked as a tutor, consultation surgeon, and clinical director of General Surgery at Auckland Hospital and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery at the University of Auckland, where he has introduced numerous surgical procedures.

He founded the first multidisciplinary service for the management of breast cancer in Auckland in both the public and private spheres, and led the establishment of breast screening in Northland. He was also was one of the pioneers of renal transplant surgery in New Zealand.

Dr Ted Ward for services to intensive care practice.

Dr Ward was a pioneer of intensive care practice in New Zealand hospitals and founded the Intensive Care Unit at Hawke's Bay Hospital in 1974.

He was one of the first to take on the role of Intensive Care Specialist in regional New Zealand, and contributed to advancing adult, paediatric and neo-natal intensive care. He was involved in establishing a Newborn Intensive Care Unit in Hawke's Bay, developed ongoing training for other staff, and instigated patient-retrieval services by road and air from other regional hospitals. The result of these services was an ever-improving rate of 'quality-life survival' for both adults and children.

Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Dr John Delahunt for services to endocrinology and the transgender community.

Dr Delahunt has worked as a consultant endocrinologist and as a lecturer at the Wellington Campus of the University of Otago for more than 40 years.

He has been an active member of the New Zealand Society of Endocrinology (NZSE), serving as the treasurer and secretary on multiple occasions, and as the NZSE representative on the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Adult Medicine Advisory Panel in the 1980s and from 2008 to 2012.

He has played a vital role in the development of transgender healthcare in New Zealand, providing a significant majority of transgender hormone treatment care in Wellington for more than 25 years. He was one of the first physicians in New Zealand to use gender affirming hormonal therapy, at a time when transphobia was common within society and the medical profession.

Annette Milligan for services to health, particularly nursing.

Ms Milligan is a teacher, registered nurse and business owner who has contributed to Nelson's health sector.

She founded Nelson's INP Medical Clinic in 1989, a women-focused, nurse-led sexual and reproductive health centre that offers a wide variety of advice and checks for women's health issues. Since 2016, she has chaired the Member and Accreditation Committee of MEDSAC, which enables Nurse Practitioners to become registered sexual assault examiners.

Ms Milligan is also a founding member and Chair of the Safeguarding Children Initiative, a charity founded in 2011 that educates the children's workforce and the community on child protection. To date, the charity has trained more than 12,000 New Zealanders in child protection.

Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Dr David Codyre for services to mental health.

Dr Codyre is a community psychiatrist and longstanding advocate for improvement in mental health services, and for increased access to peer support services.

From 2002 to 2012 he established and led New Zealand's first primary mental healthcare programme at ProCare Health in Auckland. Since 2012 he has led the mental health team at New Zealand's largest independent primary healthcare group Tamaki Health.

Dr Codyre has served on mental health expert advisory boards both regionally and for the Ministry of Health and Government, and has served on a number of mental health related trust boards, including the Key to Life Charitable Trust from 2013 to 2019, the organization supporting Mike King's mental health promotion and suicide prevention work.

Janine Ewan for services to palliative care.

Ms Ewan has worked for Dove Hospice since 2000 and is the Chief Executive Officer of Clinical Services.

She has grown Dove Hospice from caring for 14 patients and families per year to more than 600. The service has a leading edge 'new age' out-patient facility with a focus on holistic wellness, as well as an in-patient service for respite and end-of-life care. She initiated a counselling service that has grown to be one of the largest in a hospice service setting within New Zealand.

She was appointed as a Trustee to the foundation board of Race4Life, a national charitable trust that provides wishes for terminally ill adults. Ms Ewan was awarded the Rotary Service Award for Professional Excellence in 2005, the Eastern Bays Community Board's Good Citizen Award in 2010, and the Rothbury Scholarship in 2013.

Professor Ngaire Kerse for services to seniors and health.

Professor Kerse is a Professor of General Practice and Primary Health Care and in 2018 was appointed the inaugural Joyce Cook Chair in Ageing Well at the University of Auckland.

She is an international expert in maximising health for older people, falls and older people, the impact of physical activity on development of disability, and developing Robot Technology for older people with dementia.

Since 2010, she has been the co-principal investigator of the longitudinal study 'Te Puāwaitanga o Ngā Tapuwae Kia Ora Tonu, Life and Living in Advanced Age: A Cohort Study in New Zealand,' a world-first study of an indigenous population of older people over 80, helping people to plan better for their own health and wellbeing in later life. In 2007 she led the Brief Risk Identification Geriatric Health Tool (BRIGHT) study to investigate methods for healthcare professionals to stay in closer contact with their older patients to identify health risks at earlier stages.

Professor Kerse is currently President of the New Zealand Association of Gerontology, and she practices part-time as a General Practitioner at the Auckland City Mission.