OLIVIA PIRIE
2013: An Otago touch rugby representative, Pirie also excelled at athletics and had won national and South Island surf-lifesaving events. The sporty teenager hoped to help people in the community improve their wellbeing and fitness.
2023: Pirie is a senior lifeguard at Balclutha Centennial Pool and works part-time at Balclutha Pro-fit Gym as a core, spin and conditioning class instructor. She competed at the 2019 surf life-saving nationals with the Kaka Point women’s canoe team and volunteers as a lifeguard in summer. As well as holding a New Zealand certificate in freestyle group exercise (level 4) and a New Zealand certificate in aquatics (level 3), she is doing the level 4 senior lifeguard apprenticeship.
2013: Hollows was in the Otago under-19 netball and touch rugby teams and had just trialled for the New Zealand secondary schools netball side. She planned to study health sciences, then branch out into a related field such as physiotherapy.
2023: Hollows is a clinical nurse on a colorectal, hepatobilary and general surgical ward at The Wesley Hospital in Brisbane, where one of the surgeries performed is pelvic exenteration for extensive bowel cancer. Shift work has made it too difficult to play sport competitively, but she plays social netball.
