ENCOUNTER: Mark makes lives a little sweeter

When Mark Grantham was told he couldn't have a paper run as a kid, he started selling chocolate bars instead. It turned out he was pretty good at it, too.

In the 20 years since he started fund-raising for World Vision, the 33-year-old with a keen sense of humour reckons he's sold about 20,000 bars - and raised thousands of dollars for the charity in the process.

"I'm good at selling and at PR,'' he says with a sly grin.

You might recognise Mark from Newmarket on Saturday mornings. He's the guy in a wheelchair who has been a regular fixture on the small square of footpath outside
Hallensteins on Broadway where he plies his trade.

If you haven't seen him you've probably heard him trying to catch your attention - he
is always on for a chat to find out what's going on and what people are up to.

"I'm a little bit famous in Newmarket, I think, because I have sold chocolate bars there
for so long that people recognise me,'' he says.

This is all an incredible achievement for a guy who deals with serious challenges that
most of us couldn't even begin to comprehend.

Mark was born with cerebral palsy. He is a tetraplegic, meaning he is totally paralysed
from the neck down. He relies on personal assistants to help him eat and dress, and to
perform other basic activities most people do without thinking.

I MET Mark at his home in Onehunga. It's a simple brick-and-tile unit in the middle of
three identical houses down a long drive, decked out to cater for Mark's needs.

A hoist between the bedroom and bathroom makes it easier for his personal assistants,
or PAs, as he calls them, to help lift him  into his motorised wheelchair. Mark has called the unit home for five years, something his dad, Chris, says is a real achievement for someone in his situation.

But that's just the way Mark is. Fiercely independent and strong-willed, he doesn't let anything stop him from doing what he wants. In 2005, that meant travelling to Mumbai in India to meet three of the five children he sponsors through World Vision with the proceeds of his chocolate sales.

This year, it meant undertaking the gruelling, often uncomfortable, journey to Tanzania to visit the other two children. Despite the logistics of getting there - and enduring a 30-hour journey to the poverty-stricken country - Mark was determined to see his "kids''.

Dad Chris and personal assistant, Hailey Amohanga, accompanied him on the 10-day trip to Tanzania which included a safari and a stay in a tent in the Tanagiri National Park, plus visits to meet Dismas and Lokadia, both aged 10, and their families in the Great Rift Valley.

"It was an emotional experience,'' says Mark, who sees himself as a sort of father figure
to the children. "I always wanted to do something for the community. I wish I could do
more.''

Chris, who also doubles as Mark's manager and, more recently, his biographer, says the trip to Africa meant a lot to Mark.

"He always said he wanted to go there, but he has always pushed the boundaries to be
independent. He left home when he was nearly 20, but he was in an institutional type of
home so, when the opportunity came up to get him into his own home, he jumped at it.

"He's still needing 24-hour care, but most people in his situation wouldn't live alone.''

Mark says he likes having his own space. "It's really good for me. I couldn't do this without a lot of help and determination.''

The Chocolate Seller on Broadway and His Kids: The Story of Mark Grantham, by Chris Grantham, $30. 
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