Valley Flyer helps Gillies McIndoe fly

Valley Flyer helps Gillies McIndoe fly

Local Hutt Valley bus service, Valley Flyer is joining with the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute in a new community partnership.

The Gillies McIndoe Research Institute will conduct research into reconstructive plastic surgery, which will help change the lives of those living with disfiguring and sometimes life threatening medical conditions. The Institute is to be based at the Hutt Valley Hospital and Matthew Lear, General Manager of Valley Flyer, is delighted that Valley Flyer can help contribute to the establishment of such a worthwhile organisation.

“At Valley Flyer, we believe we have a role to play in supporting our community,” says Mr Lear. “The Gillies McIndoe Research Institute is going to provide a very genuine contribution to the Hutt Valley and beyond. To have the opportunity to support the great work they do is very important to us.”

From November, a uniquely designed bus will hit the streets to help drive public awareness of the work the Institute does.

The emblem of the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute is the butterfly, symbolic of the physical changes patients undergo through reconstructive surgery and the consequent transformations that take place within their lives.

The Valley Flyer is holding a competition whereby people, including school children from the Hutt Valley, can design their own butterfly. The winning entry will be chosen by a panel of Valley Flyer bus drivers, and the winning artwork will be displayed on the ceiling and walls of the bus. The winner will also receive $1000 cash and 3 months free bus travel on all Valley Flyer services.

People should look out for an entry form in the Hutt News and Upper Hutt Leader (from 5 October) or go to www.valleyflyer.co.nz to download one (from 1 October). Entry forms will also be delivered to all Hutt Valley schools at the start of Term 4 (12 October).

“The bus will provide a unique and highly visible canvas to really get the word out there about the work that the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute does. The competition is a great way for the whole community to get involved,” says Mr Lear.

Dr Colin Calcinai, Chair of the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery Research Foundation, the body behind the Institute project, and Professor Swee Tan, Director of Surgery at Hutt Hospital, are delighted that Valley Flyer is supporting the Institute.

"Valley Flyer’s sponsorship will significantly lift the profile of the Institute here in the Hutt Valley and across Wellington. We are fortunate indeed to have a billboard of this size travelling through the community on a daily basis," Dr Calcinai says.

Professor Tan said that a third of all patients seen at the Regional Plastic Surgery Unit are children. "The idea of the artwork competition involving children at Hutt Valley schools being launched in conjunction with the newly painted bus is a good one. It is great to involve the whole community in this and increase their understanding about what we are trying to do."

"These images will look fantastic on the bus and of course the transformation of chrysalis to butterfly represents the change in people’s lives once they have benefitted from reconstructive plastic surgery,” Dr Calcinai explains. “We are also pleased that inside the bus, travelers will be able to learn more about the Institute and research work it will undertake."

"We are very grateful to Valley Flyer for this sponsorship, we see their involvement as an ideal way of reaching a large number of people and the timing is perfect for us, as we are now concentrating on raising the profile of the institute to attract the necessary funds for its completion."

ENDS

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