Generous support secures new transport incubator

The Well Foundation was one of 30 charities chosen for this year’s The Trusts Million Dollar Mission, an opportunity for the public to vote for their favourite charity to receive a share of $1 million. 

Voting opened on March 1st and thanks to our fantastic supporters we raised $100,000 for a transport incubator needed for premature and fragile babies born in our region. For every online vote, The Trusts donated $5; hundreds of people voted for us every day to ensure we reached our target in just 11 days. What a phenomenal effort!

For babies such as Gabriel Malaitai-Tunai (pictured with mum, Theresa) the new transport incubator will mean a more comfortable ride from our local hospitals to Auckland City Hospital where he regularly travels for some of his care. 

Gabriel is one of hundreds of babies each year who, for their first weeks or months of life, call the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) home – located at both North Shore and Waitakere hospitals. When, at two weeks of age, Gabriel was transferred to SCBU from Auckland City Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, he travelled in a larger incubator than the outdated ones our local hospitals have. The older style transport incubators are small and the technology is very limited.

Our CEO, Andrew Young says, “We need all the help we can get from supporters and the general public and we were so thrilled to receive one of the biggest slices of the $1M giveaway. I was equally thrilled by the overwhelming response we received last year, when The Trusts ran its first Million Dollar Mission. Public votes have given us the highest total share across both years which reflects people’s underlying desire to help improve health services for our local communities, especially to the most vulnerable.”

Thank you, too, to The Trusts for the opportunity to take part.

 


Issue 86 April 2018