The world’s biggest dairy exporter just rearranged their entire district work schedule solely so their biggest fan could get to bed on time.
Andrew Oliver is only one of eight people in the world living with Fryns-Aftimos syndrome. He is also the only person in New Zealand living with the condition.
Though he is 35 years old, the genetic mutation means that Oliver has the mental maturity of a 6-year-old. Additionally, he suffers from five forms of epilepsy and a variety of other symptoms.
Andrew, who lives and works with his parents on a dairy farm in the Te Rapa district of Hamilton, also has to abide by a specific nightly routine. Every evening for the last 15 years, Andrew ate dinner, took a bath, and then waited to greet the milk truck that would drain their milk tanks every night.
Unfortunately, the milk tanker would not arrive until the wee hours of the night, and Andrew could not go to bed until the tanker arrived. Since Andrew’s father Ken has to wake up at sunrise in order to manage the dairy farm, the family struggled to manage their sleep schedule.
When Ken’s wife suffered a stroke, he couldn’t endure the late nights any longer – so he called Fonterra, the dairy company that picks up their milk, and told the customer service representative about his predicament.
“Surviving on three or four hours sleep, I’d just run out. I’d hit the wall and so I phoned the call center and actually started crying on the phone, I was just so shot,” Ken told RNZ. “I just said look, my life has just become impossible and just explained what was going on. I need sleep and I can’t get sleep until this boy’s in bed.”
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Upon hearing about the family’s dilemma, the company then rearranged the tanker routes and schedule of the entire district so that the Oliver family was guaranteed pickup between 6:30 and 8PM.
“A big outfit like Fonterra doesn’t have to do that,” Ken added. “They simply could’ve ignored the request but no, they came through. And we’re very grateful.”
(WATCH the news coverage below) – Photo by RNZ
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