Susan Carol Garden-Bachop (2 December 1961 – 11 September 2008) was a New Zealand sportsperson who represented her country in

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

touch In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch (haptic perception), as well as temperature (thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It is ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

Early life and family

Born in about 1960, Garden-Bachop grew up in the

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most p ...

suburb of

Wainuiomata Wainuiomata () is a large suburb of Lower Hutt, in the Wellington Region of New Zealand's North Island. Origin of name The word 'Wainui-o-mata' is a Māori name made up of the words Wai = water, Nui = big, O = of, and Mata – which could refer ...

. She married rugby union player and coach Stephen Bachop and together they had three children: Georgia,

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Q ...

and Connor, all of whom play sport at high levels. The couple separated in 2006.

Sporting career

In 1988, Garden-Bachop was promoted to co-coach of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

's Northern United senior men's team, becoming one of the first women to coach a premier side in the country. She was a selector for the New Zealand women's rugby team, the

Black Ferns The New Zealand women's rugby union team, called the Black Ferns, represents New Zealand in women's international rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport. The team has won six out of nine Women's Rugby World Cup tournamen ...

from 1996 to 1998. She was coach of

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

' 1st XV in 2000-2002 and took the Leeds Tykes Sevens team to the quarterfinals of the

Middlesex Sevens The Middlesex Sevens was a Rugby Sevens tournament held annually at Twickenham stadium in London, England until 2011. It was first held in 1926, and started by Dr J.A. Russell-Cargill, a London-based Scot.Bath, ''Scotland Rugby Miscellany'', p82 Th ...

in 2001. In 2002 she returned to New Zealand and was appointed assistant coach of the Black Ferns.

Later life and death

Garden-Bachop was diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

and wrote a children's book, ''Who Will Tuck Me In?'', published in 2006, to help children understand their feelings when a parent is dying from cancer. She died aged 46 in Wellington on 11 September 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garden-Bachop, Sue 2008 deaths Place of birth missing Sportspeople from Lower Hutt New Zealand female rugby union players New Zealand women's international rugby union players New Zealand women's basketball players New Zealand female field hockey players Bachop-Mauger family Deaths from cancer in New Zealand Deaths from leukemia 20th-century New Zealand women 21st-century New Zealand women 1961 births