On Friday 14th October one of our key charity partners, Heart Kids Wellington, are running the 360 Logistics Wellington Heart Stopper Challenge.

Every 14 hours, a heart child is born in New Zealand – that’s 12 new babies every week or one heart baby for every 100 live births. Each year, 600 families have a newborn heart child enter their lives. This makes childhood heart defects the most common serious birth abnormality needing ongoing medical intervention in New Zealand.

Not a day goes by when a child does not undergo open heart surgery at Starship Hospital’s Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Ward (over 450 open heart surgeries a year) or brand new parents don’t face the prospect of caring for a chronically ill child.

The Heart Stopper Challenge celebrates these brave children, and aims to spread awareness and provide lifelong support for those who battle congenital heart defects.

Heart Kids is there to provide practical and emotional support to heart kids and their families. They are the only charity providing support to these children and receive no government funding therefore they rely on fundraising and events to help us deliver these crucial services throughout the country. The Heart Stopper Challenge funds raised will be used to support heart children and their families in local communities across the country and during their long stays in the national children’s hospital in Auckland.

 

What is Heart Stopper Challenge: 

During surgery a child’s chest cavity can be filled with an icy slush to slow the heart’s oxygen requirement, giving the surgeon a longer window of operating time.  For the Heart Stopper Challenge teams of 4-6 people will plunge into a tub of water chilled to 10⁰ for 360 seconds to show their support for Heart Kids NZ and the thousands of kids and families who face even bigger challenges every single day.

If you want to register a team and take the plunge you can do so here:

https://heartstopperwelly2016.everydayhero.com/nz/sign-up

If you prefer to donate to Heart Kids you can do so by supporting LFC Wellington member, Heart Kid and Heart Kids Wellington Vice Chairperson Jimmy Lawler at this page:

https://heartstopperwelly2016.everydayhero.com/nz/jimmy

 

YNWA