Dianne Buchan spent her working life as a social and environmental impact assessor and researcher on projects and programmes throughout New Zealand and the Pacific. She is retired, though still serves as a board member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, and of the DB Environmental Trust, which she established. As a member of the Otaki Historical Society, Buchan became interested in the stories around the people who attended the Otaki Health Camp (now called Stand Children's Village), and recorded their stories in a new book Sun, Sea & Sustenance, examining the history of New Zealand's first permanent health camp.