Kindness helps critically ill Kiwi kids

The generosity of the Warkworth community has played a significant role in the success of a two-year fundraising drive for the Starship Foundation in Auckland.

Warkworth Lions, who launched the campaign to raise $406,700 for a pediatric intensive care unit at Starship Hospital, hit its target this month.

Club president Peter Henderson says more than $40,000 was donated across the Mahurangi district, much of it in small donations from individuals. The rest came from Lions clubs from around New Zealand, as well as the International Foundation based in Chicago.

“It’s a testimony to the generosity of this district that despite covid and all the other challenges we’ve faced over recent times, people have still been prepared to put their hands in their pockets to help others,”

Henderson says.

Starship’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is the only dedicated unit of its kind in NZ. Each year, around 1200 of New Zealand’s most critically ill and injured children are treated there. The unit also takes admissions from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and American Samoa.

The money raised by Lions will cover the cost of setting up a unit, including the purchase of specialised equipment.

“Almost everyone knows someone who has