Tenby Powell - Humanitarian, Businessman, and Former Mayor of Tauranga

Real Life With John Cowan

“I may as well just grab six-month blocks while I can and use them to their full potential.”

After a major health scare, former Tauranga Mayor Tenby Powell is committed to making the most of the life he’s got left.

The Kiwi businessman is the director of Kiwi K.A.R.E, a humanitarian organisation providing medical care and evacuation services to people on the frontlines of wartorn Ukraine. He’s headed back there soon, and plans to stay for a year.

While such a commitment would be astounding for anyone, it’s all the more impressive given that Powell was diagnosed with late-stage cancer less than four years ago.

The period he spent coming to grips with his illness and receiving radiation treatment gave him time to reset and decide what was important, he told Newstalk ZB’s show Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night.

“It was about getting back into life, and saying to myself that with stage four cancer, I’m good right now but I’m only ever six months away from a problem,” he said.

“It doesn’t have to be a gargantuan problem, but it could be more treatment – and I’ve found that quite imprisoning… I thought I may as well just grab those six-month blocks while I can and use them to their full potential.”

Initially, Powell took to long periods tramping and spending time in the bush, and later riding Indian motorcycles in memory of his grandfather. But then, in February 2022, his whole world changed.

“I sat watching the television aghast as 40,000 Russian troops crossed the border in Belarus and invaded Ukraine. This just isn’t meant to happen at all in our lifetime, and particularly in Europe,” he told Cowan.

“At its most fundamental, it’s about the principles of sovereignty, and the right of every people in every nation to forge their own future.”

Perturbed by what he was seeing, Powell jumped into action, setting up Kiwi K.A.R.E last July and establishing pop-up health clinics in what were newly liberated parts of Ukraine.

“Some of the people we encountered hadn’t seen any medical or health professionals for if not months, years,” Powell explained. “We forget that Ukraine has been fighting particularly in the Donbas since 2014, and some folk just haven’t seen doctors, nurses and dentists for some years.”

Powell recently got in contact with St John and shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen about shipping some disused ambulances to Ukraine, where the need for mobile medical care is huge.

The ambulances have each done at least 300,000km, but Powell says the upkeep by St John has been top-level and they are in good nick.

“They’re not fit for purpose in New Zealand, but my goodness they will be of significant value to newly liberated areas where we can do pop-up mobile clinics and extractions,” he said.

“These things aren’t cheap to run, but I do hope we can keep two for Kiwi K.A.R.E and the other five will go to medical units in frontline areas where the need is greatest.”

As part of Kiwi K.A.R.E’s offering, Powell is hoping that some dental professionals will jump on board so people who have been nursing a long-term toothache or decaying teeth can get the help they need.

Powell says his 33 years in the military, his stint as Tauranga mayor and his senior business experience are serving him well in Ukraine.

“It’s a poignant overlap, a nexus of a range of skillsets that I’ve needed in Ukraine. There have been occasions when I’ve put on a suit and met some very senior people in Kiev, and that has opened doors that have been amazing for us,” he said.

“It’s enabled us to do stuff we possibly couldn’t have done as a private organisation.”

His military background, in particular, has been something that’s put him in good stead in a difficult environment.

“We had instilled in us that there was always something we could do – and when you think you’ve run out of options, there’s got to be something else,” Powell told Cowan.

“Never, ever give up – particularly where lives are at stake.”

-Matt Burrows

Tenby was raised in Tauranga, where he attended Otumoetai College. Prior to attending the University of Waikato, he was an engineering apprentice at Edwards Engineering, working on fishing vessels. In 1983, he joined the New Zealand Defence Force and, in 1999, started a private investment firm with his entrepreneur wife, Sharon. He was the Mayor of Tauranga from 2019-2020 and has also served as a Director and Chairman on several private and government boards. In 2022, Tenby founded Kiwi K.A.R.E. (Kiwi Aid & Refugee Evacuation), which provides essential medicines, trauma kits, medical equipment, food and more to the people of Ukraine.
Tenby and Sharon have two adult children, George and Charlotte.

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