Heart Stopper Challenge

Heart Stopper Challenge
An icy plunge that warms the heart

A big chill is making its way to Auckland that will send temperatures plummeting but fill the heart with warm fuzzies.

It’s the Heart Stopper Challenge that will take place at Gables Kitchen & Bar in Central Auckland and Auckland Botanical Gardens in South Auckland on the 7th and the 30th of April respectively. The event will see teams of big-hearted supporters plunge into a pool of icy water for five minutes to help raise awareness and funds for Heart Kids.

Heart Kids is the only charity that provides lifelong support for the 12 babies born every week with a heart defect in New Zealand and those children with an acquired heart defect from childhood illness.

Since its inception in 2001, Heart Stopper Challenge had attracted thousands of brave souls to take the plunge in support of Heart Kids. It’s a great way to bring family and friends together for a bit of fun while doing good for a worthy cause. It’s also excellent for corporate team-building as participants come in a team theme and crazy costume, and have fun plunging together while raising some serious money for Heart Kids at the same time.

One supporter taking the plunge at the Central Auckland event is Alex Lancaster from Torbay. He needed no convincing as he knows from first-hand experience how vital Heart Kids’ support is to heart families.

His three-year-old son Ben was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a rare and complex heart defect that causes oxygen-poor blood flow to the rest of the body. Little Ben received two open-heart surgeries the first at just four months old and the second one when he was 10 months of age to correct the life threatening condition.

As a way to show his support of Heart Kids, Alex gathered a team from work for the 2014 Auckland Heart Stopper and was the individual that raised the most funds. He and his workmates had so much fun partaking in the event that they are doing it again this year.

Alex said, “The Heart Stopper is a fun, meaningful way for me to give back to the charity that helped my family so much during my son’s heart journey. Their Family Support Workers got in touch with us, listened to us, provided us with information and practical support. They really helped ease our fear and uncertainty and helped us stay strong for our boy. Our journey wouldn't have been the same without them.”

The inspiration behind the Heart Stopper plunge is the 450 open-heart surgeries performed every year in New Zealand on little hearts – some just hours old. Surgeons sometimes fill the chest cavity with an icy slush to slow the metabolism during surgery to allow a longer window of operating time.

Teams use an online fundraising site to raise funds in advance of their plunge. Funds raised from the two Auckland events are used to support heart kids and their families staying on the National Paediatric Cardiac Ward and returning home after surgery, through Heart Kids’ Family Support Programme in conjunction with its nationwide network of branches.

Go to www.heartstopper.org.nz to register a team for an event near you and set up your online fundraising page.

‘Like’ us at www.facebook.com/heartstopperchallenge to stay up-to-date with photos and information about the events.

ENDS

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