GILLIAN (GILLY) HALL (née Macdonald) - Graduate New Zealand School of Physiotherapy - class of 1971

2006

Photograph courtesy of the Hall family.

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Gilly Hall, the great grand-daughter of Sir Henry Lindo Ferguson, a former Dean of the Otago Medical School, was a prominent advocate of skiing for the disabled both nationally and internationally.
Having been exposed to the concept of disabled skiing in Switzerland, Gilly returned to New Zealand with the hope of making skiing for the disabled a reality in this country. Gilly’s dual role of physiotherapist and ski-instructor made her a highly appropriate ambassador for the cause - she fully understood the impact of uneven snow slopes, excessive curves, and the challenges of various physical disabilities.
Gilly was instrumental in setting up the NZ Association of Disabled Skiing in 1976. She took on the role of team physiotherapist for the Paralympic Games on four occasions and was awarded the inaugural New Zealand Ski
Association’s Skier of Year Award (1978), and the Queen’s Service Medal for her services to the sport and the disabled (1986). On her untimely death in 2009 Gilly received both national and international tributes for her contribution to disabled skiing.