Children help out Kidney KidsBy NICOLA PEAT
Thursday, 11 December 2008
• Howick and Pakuranga Times
PUPILS at Howick Primary School have spent all year collecting can tabs for the Kidney Kids Foundation.
But the reality of how it’s helping has come a little closer to home than expected.
Former school pupil Katherine Paton had to enlist the services of Kidney Kids after needing a kidney transplant in November.
The 16-year-old only discovered her illness in May and her mother Sandra says they have “been through a lot in a short period of time”.
Sandra donated a kidney to her daughter and she says they’re now both doing well and values the support they’ve received.
“Kidney Kids have been lovely and family and friends from the community have been fan-tastic and supportive,” says Ms Paton.
Kidney Kids runs the fund-raiser Kan Tabs, where it collects ring top tabs off soft drink, tuna and even cat food cans. Children at Howick Primary managed to collect more than 21,000 of them during the year.
Kidney Kids says one tab collected is worth one second in the life of a child who is on dialysis. At the moment there are about 1250 children who require dialysis treatment or additional support from Kidney Kids.
Senior teacher at Howick Primary Dee Gordon says the kids have been eagerly collecting for the cause for 12 months.
“They [the students] are enjoying it, they have been really into it,” says Mrs Gordon.She adds the school has not been advocating excessive fizzy drink consumption to collect more tabs for Kidney Kids.
“It encourages recycling and gives them a chance to give back to other kids,” she says.
Ian Packwood from the Howick Lions Club, who works in conjunction with Kidney Kids and the Kan Tabs initiative, collected the tabs and was highly impressed with the youngsters’ efforts.
“They’ve done extraordinarily well,” says Mr Packwood.
http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/2008/12/children_help_out_kidney_kids.php
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