Our History

In 1946 Sir Thomas and Lady Duncan established a hospital in Silverstream, Wellington for the treatment of polio and funded the study of an alternative polio treatment known as the Kenny method. The hospital and the sheep station, “Otiwhiti” (situated at Otairi, Hunterville in the Rangitikei), were gifted to a trust then known as the Mr. & Mrs. T. A. Duncan Hospital Trust.

In 1952 the hospital was relocated to Durie Hill, Wanganui. By the end of the 1950s the Salk vaccine had virtually eradicated polio in New Zealand and the hospital was sold in 1979.

Until 2006, when Otiwhiti Station was sold, the farming operations provided funds for the operation of the hospital and the charitable purposes of the Trust.

The Foundation now assists those with post polio syndrome, funds research into neuro-muscular disorders, and assists those suffering from neuro-muscular disorders, particularly children.

“The Duncan Family’s legacy of ‘giving back’ was strengthened by its patriarch, Sir Thomas Duncan, known as T.A. An astute, forward thinking and successful farmer he was, along with his wife, Jeannie deeply connected to the local community. When the polio epidemic of last century landed disastrously close to home, they set aside Otiwhiti Station as a charitable trust to fund the Duncan Hospital, which pioneered treatment for polio sufferers. Ever since, the Trust and the farm have worked side by side, throughout the changing fortunes of farming.” — Otiwhiti Station: The Story of a Hill Country Station and Pioneering Polio Hospital, John McCrystal and Vera Hunt, Random House 2011