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“I still have such a lot to be grateful for,” says Minnie Baragwanath, wiping a tear from her cheek as her new puppy Floyd sleeps on her lap.
The tireless campaigner didn’t want to cry, but it tends to happen when she talks about her most recent setback: a frightening heart attack and diagnosis of a rare cardiac condition.
It’s the second rare disorder for the inspiring Aucklander, who found out as a teenager she had Stargardt disease, a progressive sight disorder that has left her legally blind. She’s also the survivor of a grueling breast cancer battle.
While Minnie, 51, has spent her life fighting for a fairer world for people with disabilities, it’s her experiences in the health system that have provided the starkest – and most personal – reminders of just how much work there is still to be done.
“When I got sick, it was brutal,” says Minnie, sitting down to chat at her home in Freemans Bay, Auckland. “You’re confronted with inequity and inaccessibility at
