MEDIA RELEASE
Issued on behalf of the Child Cancer Foundation and the Bay of Plenty District Health Board
25 October 2006
Child Cancer Foundation and health board walking side by side
The proceeds from the Child Cancer Fun Run Walk or Ride event this Sunday will be used to assist local health
professionals caring for child cancer patients.
Tauranga Branch Manager of the Child Cancer Foundation Warren Keenan announced today that the funds received from the
family event at Mount Maunganui will be put aside for equipment or other purposes that will improve the comfort or
health care for local children with cancer.
“The Child Cancer Foundation has always been a partnership between health care professionals and families of children
with cancer,” says Mr Keenan.
“The Tauranga Branch helps families with the social and financial costs of living with cancer, and the long periods away
at Starship Hospital. Anything we can do as well to help Tauranga Hospital and other health providers to deliver the
best services possible will be appreciated by our families.”
Bay of Plenty District Health Board Public Health Portfolio Manager Brian Pointon, who is coordinating the health
board’s participation in the Child Cancer Fun Ride or Walk, has personal experience of the benefits that will come from
Child Cancer Foundation and the health board working closely together. He has worked actively for the Child Cancer
Foundation since his daughter was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, in the 1990s.
“The Child Cancer Foundation was a great support for our family then. This funding support for health professionals will
help to provide the right services in the Western Bay of Plenty in support of the specialised care at Starship
Hospital,” he says.
The Child Cancer Foundation and the health board will decide how to best use this funding after the event has taken
place.
Entries for the event will be accepted right up to start time on Sunday morning. Entry forms are available from Smith’s
Sports Shoes in Tauranga or Bike & Pack in Mount Maunganui. Registrations will also be taken from 2.00 - 4.00pm on Saturday 28 October at the Mount
Cosmopolitan Club.
Alternatively you can download an entry form from www.communitysport.co.nz
ENDS