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<strong>Selwyn</strong> <strong>Times</strong> Wednesday <strong>September</strong> <strong>20</strong> <strong>20</strong>23<br />
10<br />
NEWS<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
From treating soldiers on the<br />
Thirty-years-ago Sharon<br />
Mason was a British Army<br />
nursing officer. Now she’s<br />
three months into her new<br />
role as district council chief<br />
executive. Daniel Alvey<br />
spoke to her about the<br />
new job<br />
SHARON MASON has taken<br />
care of soldiers across the world<br />
– and now she’s looking after the<br />
health of the district.<br />
Mason has replaced former<br />
district council chief executive<br />
David Ward who retired in June<br />
after almost a decade in the role.<br />
She was born in<br />
Northumberland, England,<br />
and then moved to Northern<br />
Ireland, where she spent her<br />
childhood.<br />
She then trained to be a<br />
registered nurse. In 1993 she<br />
joined the Queen Alexandra<br />
Royal Army Nursing Corps<br />
where she spent time as a<br />
nursing officer across the world<br />
on different deployments.<br />
“I started in London but spent<br />
a vast amount of my time in<br />
Europe stationed in Germany,<br />
served some time in Bosnia,”<br />
said Mason.<br />
She also spent about three<br />
months in Kenya and Tanzania.<br />
“A nursing officer in those<br />
days was quite similar to a nurse<br />
practitioner but in battlefield<br />
medicine. So I used to be able to<br />
do tooth extractions, I could put<br />
in chest drains.”<br />
She said her toughest<br />
assignment was in Bosnia and<br />
Herzegovina where she was<br />
deployed as part of the United<br />
Nations peacekeeping force in<br />
Šipovo in 1998.<br />
The Bosnian War took place<br />
from 1992 to 1995 as a result of<br />
the breakup of Yugoslavia. It<br />
was fought between three ethnic<br />
groups – Bosnian Muslim, Croat,<br />
and Serb.<br />
A peace agreement, known<br />
as the Washington Agreement,<br />
was signed in 1995 and United<br />
Nations Protection Force troops<br />
extended “safe havens” to<br />
protect civilians and bring in<br />
medical supplies and doctors.<br />
Mason was based in one of three<br />
UN field hospitals.<br />
“Part of the role of the United<br />
Nations was to care for the<br />
population and we cared for<br />
everybody.<br />
“Certainly, Bosnia was<br />
particularly challenging because<br />
we cared for all parties if they<br />
were injured.<br />
“So quite often we’d have to<br />
have them in separate parts of<br />
WORK: Sharon Mason at her<br />
new desk after taking over<br />
the chief executive role from<br />
David Ward. A helicopter<br />
drops off a patient at the field<br />
hospital in Bosnia where she<br />
worked as a nurse.<br />
the field hospital because you’d<br />
have groups in conflict with<br />
each other. We saw some pretty<br />
traumatic injuries and, in some<br />
respect, that’s where you’re<br />
practicing at your optimum<br />
level because you’re dealing with<br />
significant trauma in terms of<br />
gunshot injuries, land mines<br />
and significant motor vehicle<br />
accidents.”<br />
She still carries some of the<br />
leadership skills she learned in<br />
the army.<br />
“You find a fit, and for me<br />
the fit was leadership, being an<br />
officer in the army certainly<br />
brought me into the leadership<br />
role. The military was where<br />
I learned a great deal of my<br />
leadership skills.<br />
“At the end of the day<br />
regardless of where you are if you<br />
want people to follow you, you<br />
have to earn their respect and<br />
you have to earn their trust and<br />
that is what makes the difference<br />
rather than people following you<br />
for your position.”<br />
Even before joining the army,<br />
Mason was already developing<br />
leadership skills.<br />
“Right from school, I was the<br />
house captain, sports captain. I<br />
seem to find I fall into leadership<br />
and it’s something I really<br />
enjoy because I enjoy people. I<br />
seem to be able to develop good<br />
relationships which in turn<br />
means we progress and do good<br />
things.”<br />
Bosnia was also where she met<br />
her husband Richard.<br />
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