Belinda Brown is many things to different people. Friend, co-worker, camp-Mum, former Trustee and Operations Manager, and, now, Chief Executive Officer of Crohn’s and Colitis New Zealand.

Belinda’s involvement with CCNZ began in 2014 when she entered Ports of Auckland’s Round-the-Bays run and raised $25,000. That seemingly small decision to enter the race was destined to change the lives of hundreds of people. It became the seed money that went to starting our first Camp Purple in 2015 where Belinda volunteered to be a group leader. One year later, recognising her commonsense approach to problem-solving and her passion to help others, she was invited to join the CCNZ Board.

Belinda served on the CCNZ Board for five years. She also took on the role of “Camp Mum” and became a leader on our camp committee. It was there that she proved her organisational and fundraising skills. Year after year she was instrumental in running our biggest project, Camp Purple, and raising the funds needed to meet the camp’s annual budget of over $100,000.

Two years ago, Belinda needed to resign as Trustee to take on the role of CCNZ’s Operations Manager. In addition to all her work on the camp, she became a successful grant writer and, often single-handedly, planned incredibly successful events such as our World IBD Day celebration at Parliament and our first annual retreat for Young Adults in Wellington. She organised our march through downtown Wellington to present our ustekinumab petition on the steps of Parliament, she regularly liaises with the media to get successful coverage of our advocacy work, and has spoken passionately innumerable times on radio, television, and in the press to raise awareness of IBD.

Belinda also manages our social media pages, personally answers all email and phone inquiries, and keeps us up to date on the latest Covid recommendations. She has been instrumental in revising our patient handbook, “Living with IBD”, due out within the next couple of months, and put together our recent book of patient stories earlier this year. She is our link with other NGOs to promote common causes, and is the glue that keeps our affiliated support group coordinators in contact with one another. She is the person who publishes this very newsletter. The list goes on and on.

On top of all this, Belinda is one of the most caring people I have ever met. People who know her use the term “Belinda moment” to describe getting emotionally teary about something we are passionate about.

Belinda has been more than just a CEO. She has been a godsend to CCNZ.

You can read about her journey with Crohn’s disease on CCNZ’s website: https://crohnsandcolitis.org.nz/Belinda's%20Story

Belinda can be contacted directly at ceo@crohnsandcolitis.org.nz.