![\"Norman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/norman-camburn-86-333VWVZ6CRADLECXQZE6VNCQUI.png\")
<\/p>\nA Whakat\u0101ne resident says she is “so grateful” to a local legend with the same name as her husband, who picked up her father from hospital after being mistakenly called.<\/p>\n
When Norman Camburn, 86, was discharged from Whakat\u0101ne Hospital, he told staff to call his wife. When she didn’t answer, they tried his son-in-law, Richard Hayes, to come and collect him. <\/p>\n
However, a different local man \u2014 also named Richard Hayes \u2014 answered the call, and decided to go pick up the stranger from the hospital anyway to ensure he got home safely. <\/p>\n
“It was like ‘no, I don’t know a Norman at all’. I used to have an uncle Norman, but that was the extent of it,” Hayes told Breakfast. <\/p>\n
He said he was “aware of another Hayes family in the area”, but had no connection to them himself. <\/p>\n
“I had a space in my diary so I just thought, ah well, I’ll go and grab him, he needs to be out of hospital,” he laughed. <\/p>\n
Hayes dropped him off at his place, where he got a confused look from Camburn\u2019s wife in the driveway, according to Stuff. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Norman Camburn, 86. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Camburn insisted on a payment or a gift but Hayes refused, saying “everywhere\u2019s 15 minutes in Whakat\u0101ne. It actually took me longer to get him in the car than to drive there”. <\/p>\n
The humble hero said he didn’t need any praise, just that “you give a hand where you can”. <\/p>\n
The family took to Facebook, searching for the kind stranger who was now being hailed a local legend. <\/p>\n
Norman’s daughter, Joanne Hayes told Breakfast they simply “found the wrong Richard”. <\/p>\n
She said the family were “so grateful” to Richard for stepping up to look after her dad, regardless of the lack of blood relation. <\/p>\n
“I just want to thank you so, so much,” she said to Hayes. <\/p>\n
Health NZ has been approached for comment. <\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including the confirmed cause of death of one of NZ’s famous stowaway twins, a deadly helicopter collision in Brazil, and looming thunderstorms could cause problems for a UFC event at the White House. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Whakat\u0101ne resident says she is “so grateful” to a local legend with the same name as her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,134,43,1756,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-477497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-news","tag-tauranga-bay-of-plenty","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}