Media Release
10 February 2005
Barfoot & Thompson Builds Our Children’s Health
Starship is another step closer this week to receiving a new $300,000 state of the art ultrasound machine with the
Barfoot & Thompson’s Building Our Children’s Health campaign passing the half way mark.
Barfoot & Thompson is donating a Lego building block for every successful property sale* towards the goal of building a two metre
high model of Bob the Builder. Once the model is complete the firm will proudly present Starship with the new machine.
A significant milestone was reached today with 12 year old Starship patient Stephanie Williams of Waiuku helping to put
another 1,702 blocks in place, representing all Barfoot & Thompson’s sales throughout Auckland and Northland for the months of December and January. This brings the total number
of blocks to 3,777, which means the campaign is almost 70 percent complete.
Stephanie and her mum Grace were delighted to be able to support the fundraising campaign today as they’ve had first
hand experience of how ultrasound can be used to diagnose potentially harmful conditions. When Stephanie had a recent
cardiac procedure, ultrasound was used to diagnose a false aneurysm during her recovery. This could have led to a blood
clot if left undetected.
Stephanie requires on-going care at Starship. She is scheduled for heart surgery in April.
Barfoot & Thompson Director Peter Thompson is delighted with the progress of the fundraising campaign. “It will probably only
take another two month’s worth of sales to reach our ultimate goal.”
“Building Our Children’s Health has enabled our team and the wider public to learn the about the many ways Starship uses
ultrasound for diagnosis and monitoring. We are very proud that our fundraising efforts to purchase the new machine will
make a real difference to children’s health.”
Starship Foundation Chief Executive Andrew Young says, “We are delighted with the fundraising progress and encourage
anyone considering listing a property for sale to choose Barfoot & Thompson so that together we can continue building our children’s health.”
Ends