‘Disheartening’: ACC reverses funding cut after blind man left without vital support

Thursday, 25 December 2025

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A man who is blind says he was left unable to attend the gym after ACC abruptly cancelled funding for a support person he relied on to exercise safely - a decision the agency has reversed following Stuff inquiries.

Logan McMullen, 52, lost his sight in a car crash in 1998 and has received ACC support ever since. For the past two years, ACC had provided funding which allowed for a support person to assist him at the gym to ensure he could exercise safely and comply with health and safety requirements.

“Without that support, I'm unable to attend a gym because health and safety regulations place the gym at risk if I go in totally blind and injure myself,” McMullen said.

McMullen attended the gym three times a week for about an hour; a routine that had become increasingly important in recent years as he dealt with severe nightmares related to his accident and was prescribed medication that caused weight gain and fatigue.

“I’d wake up smelling and feeling blood; feeling glass in my face, feeling blood running down off of my cheek and out of my eye,” McMullen said.

“It's not about the money. It's about the fact that this particular support allows me to do something I've always been able to do as a sighted person and is essential to managing both my physical and mental health,” he said.

In an ACC Support Needs Assessment in November, an assessor wrote that McMullen required “direct support” at the gym to provide geographical orientation to equipment and to manage any obstacles.

“With his regular gym use, he reports that he is ‘probably as strong’ as he has ‘been in the last decade’. Something which he can be proud of,” the assessor said.

However, the funding was removed just a month later.

In a letter to McMullen dated December 10, ACC advised it would no longer fund the ongoing costs associated with regular gym or cross-fit classes, saying it was considered a personal responsibility, and not necessary for rehabilitation.

Instead, the agency offered to refer McMullen to a Training for Independence programme or advisory service, which it said could provide physiotherapy input to help establish a “safe, structured exercise programme” he could complete independently.

That decision, McMullen said, meant he could no longer attend the gym at all.

“The reality is, I used to go to the gym by myself, but since a change in health and safety regulations, the gyms have had to reduce all risk,” McMullen told Stuff after he learned the funding had been stopped.

“Me wandering around with a cane is not just a risk for me, it's a risk for everyone else. The gym also changes its layout at times, so it's essential for me to have a support person to reduce and mitigate risk.”

McMullen, who previously worked for ACC and now works as a disability advocate, reiterated the issue was not affordability - he already pays for his own gym membership and had been covering other costs, but said ACC was responsible for funding injury-related support.

“A gym membership isn't the responsibility of ACC and I agree with them. I'm paying for the gym membership. I'm also paying for the support person's gym membership so they can attend. What ACC's paying for is the time for that person.

“It makes no sense now why they would take it away… it's disheartening and disappointing.“

The support person was not a casual companion, McMullen said, but someone with enough gym knowledge and physical capability to assist him safely through each workout. He paid his most recent support person $55 per hour - a rate he said reflected the skill required.

That included significant physical demands, he said, including lifting and handling 20kg weight plates and helping locate and load equipment across the gym floor. Without a support person, McMullen said the same one-hour session would take more than twice as long - if a gym would allow him to attend at all.

“By the time I’ve found the machinery, found the weights, gone back and forth between the machines and changed them around, it would take me about two and a half hours,” he said.

“That’s assuming I could do it safely and was able to find a gym that would allow me in as a totally blind person.”

After Stuff sent questions to ACC, McMullen received an email saying the agency had decided to revoke its decision.

In a statement to Stuff, Matthew Goodger, ACC’s acting head of client recovery, said the agency had now agreed to fund three hours per week of attendant care, which McMullen could use to support his “participation in community-based activities”.

“In considering the options to support [McMullen] to safely attend the gym, attendant care was overlooked as a suitable alternative. We’ve amended our decision,” Goodger said.

“We are committed to supporting [McMullen] and apologise for any distress we may have caused him.”

McMullen said the ordeal had highlighted how vulnerable people could be, when support decisions changed suddenly.

“I just want people to know that they’re not alone and that even as an advocate, you can be on the wrong side of a bad decision,” he said.

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