Fundraiser a roaring success

BY NICOLA WILLIAMS

Lions clubs have carried out one of the most impressive fundraising efforts Starship hospital has seen.

Bucklands Beach Lions Club member Roger Robinson began the fundraising project by challenging clubs district-wide to contribute $500,000 towards the cost of remodelling the hospital’s oncology ward.

Last week Bucklands Beach and Remuera Lions club members presented the fourth $100,000 instalment to Starship.

"It’s probably one of the biggest community support projects we have seen.

"We are thrilled," says marketing and communications coordinator Cindy Carleton.

The $7 million project is due to be complete at the end of April and will be "state of the art".

The amount raised by the Lions will also go to providing more high dependency rooms in the bone marrow treatment unit.

Eighteen individual rooms will provide patients with "more privacy and dignity".

Each room will have a bed for a parent to stay with their child.

The ward, which will also have a separate adolescent area, is due to be complete by the end of April.

Pakuranga Lions Club contributed $11,000 through selling firewood and holding fashion shows and barbecues at Botany Town Centre.

Mr Robinson says when he pitched the idea at a convention in October 2007 they "looked at me with doubt" but put their support behind making it happen.

"I thought it was achievable," he says.

The Lions clubs have only $60,000 more to raise to reach the $500,000 target.

Mrs Carleton says the ward had world class care but the facilities were lacking.

Having the best environment possible will greatly improve patient recovery, she says.

- © Fairfax NZ News