‘I Could Barely Get Out Of Bed' - Theresa's Life-changing Health Scare

The Trailblazer Is Learning To Let Go And Balance Her Passions.

- Amy Prebble

Renowned businesswoman Theresa Gattung has always struggled to take things easy. Even as a teenager, she opted to do extra work.

“I did extra subjects in School C. I enjoyed it all – languages, maths, English, geography. I just had to fit them all in!” she laughs.

Theresa continued to pack in an extraordinary amount in the years following high school. She burst through the glass ceiling to become the CEO of Telecom from 1999 until 2007, made the Forbes Top 100 list of the Most Powerful Women in 2006 and co-founded the successful food-delivery business My Food Bag.

Her tireless work on initiatives supporting women, including Co.OfWomen and World Women, is a major reason why she was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2014 and is the recipient of this year’s Westpac Women of Influence Lifetime Achievement award.

However, a health scare in March meant that Theresa (56) was officially under doctor’s orders to slow down.

“I did think I had my life in a bit better balance at the time,” she says. “I actually had a month off in summer with my sister Angela. I’d only been back at work for a very short period and I started to feel dizzy, not well at all. It got worse over a couple of weeks, then one day I collapsed and ended up in hospital.”