Fundraiser goes swimmingly well

Fundraiser goes swimmingly well

The Asthma Foundation is very happy with an 11th hour rush of donations from a number of people including the Prime Minister who supported team asthma in a special swimming legends race for charity in Auckland on Saturday.

Eight teams made up of Commonwealth and Olympic representatives from the past several decades raced one another at the West Wave Aquatic Centre in Henderson. The Swimming New Zealand relay event got some of New Zealand’s best swimming veterans back in the water and raised money for a select group of not for profit organisations.

John Key made a donation to the Foundation’s team through www.fundraiseonline.co.nz.

Captained by swimming great Danyon Loader, team asthma’s line up also included: Michael Davidson, Dean Greenwood, Rebecca Linton, Mark Weldon and Cathy Hemsworth (formerly Whiting).

The other team captains were Toni Jeffs, Anna Simcic-Forrest, Mark Treffers, Gary Hurring, Paul Kingsman, Anthony Mosse and Rebecca Perrott.

The evening before the race, the Asthma Foundation’s funds raised was sitting on about $2500 but by the time of the race on Saturday morning $7560 had been donated.

The Asthma Foundation’s Chief Executive Jane Patterson says that she is delighted that the Foundation was a Swimming New Zealand charity of choice.

The money raised will help the Foundation in supporting the Asthma Societies in the work they do in communities across Aotearoa, advising people on, among other things, how to best control their asthma.

Asthma Awareness Week is approaching (3 to 9 May 2010) and a street collection will be held in Wellington on the Foundation’s activity day, Balloon Day, on 7 May.

It is estimated that up to 1 in 4 New Zealand children has asthma and the illness is still the leading reason for New Zealand children being hospitalised. Asthma can and does kill. In 2006, for example, 132 New Zealanders died from asthma.

The race was part of a week-long swimming festival that culminated in the naming of New Zealand’s 2010 Commonwealth Games swimming team.

ENDS

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