Tender Loving Care

‘She has literally saved my life’

- Julie Jacobson

LOOKING AFTER TETRAPLEGIC PATRICK TURNED TO LOVE

Like any couple, Palmerston North’s Patrick Bronte and Julie Puttock have date nights, they go out for dinner, watch movies together and walk their dogs.

Both have challenging but immensely satisfying jobs. He is on a mission to preserve the experiences of New Zealand’s servicemen and women, while she’s the regional manager of a care agency. They’ve been together for 18 years.

So far, unsurprising, yet theirs is a love story that transcends norms. Patrick is tetraplegic, paralysed from the shoulders down after breaking his neck in an horrific diving accident when he was 16.

He spent six months in the Burwood Spinal Unit – in an induced coma for three weeks early on.

While the now 39-year-old has some movement in his right hand – allowing him to operate his motorised wheelchair – he requires 24-hour care.

“I’m fully dependent,” tells Patrick. “I can get around in the chair, but I can’t do all the simple, everyday tasks.”

Julie was his caregiver for just over a year. At the time they met, he was doing media studies and had just started his veteran’s project; she was studying rehabilitation.

A mum-of-four, Julie says their feelings for each other developed over time. And then Patrick asked her out on a date.