Monthly Archive for June, 2005

June 2005 – Tracey Richardson

Published by Tracey Richardson on June 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

So ½ the year is already over, wow! I’d like to say, ‘where did that go?’ But I know the answer – it’s gone in blood, sweat but thankfully no tears.  The first 6 months of 2005 have been amazingly productive e and June was no exception as we worked towards the end-of-month launch of “Band Together”.

First there was a small matter of packing the 55,000 wristbands that where hogging my garage into boxes of 50, then distributing them to 560 retail outlets around NZ. It all culminated in one very large and busy packing chain-gang. Basically if you had hands you were enlisted, and the garage rocked to radio tunes as we whiled the day away making box’s, stuffing them with bands, inserting posters and information brochures, packing them in to shipping outers, attaching packing slips and shipping labels, marking them off a myriad of check lists and then stacking them ready for the courier to pick up. The poor courier driver though – I think he nearly had a heart attack when he arrived the first time. Six van loads later he had finally collected them all to be whisked around the country. It will be very interesting in July to see how it goes and what the sales volume and re-ordering is like.

Our planned launch event didn’t happen for a number of reasons, but part of the launch strategy was some media activity which did result in Theresa Healy and I flying to Wellington to make a mid morning appearance on “Good Morning”. The bands and Cystic Fibrosis also made the TV3 news as a 3 minute news item so we were well pleased. We even have spotted a few people round town wearing our red bands including LIONS supporters (must be because they are red!) We sent several hundred bands to media and radio and celebrities as giveaways…now we have to just wait and see.

Lastly we had to get the website ready with content and images and an ordering system. Take a look http://www.bandtogether.co.nz/ it’s quite cool and has resulted in some early orders for the bands.

Oh and then there was my book……. Yes I have written a book and June 30th was the publisher’s deadline.  I made it…….. and the initial feedback is excellent. Publication date is Oct 21st in stores and its being published by Random House.  It is the story of my experiences with CF and the amazing Journey I have been on for the past few years…..but more on that next month.

July 2005 – Stephen Denekamp

Published by Stephen Denekamp on June 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

School holidays and mid-semester break came upon us this month, so I took a break myself for two weeks. It was great to take some time out to relax and refresh myself while it dawned on me that we are half way through the year and the WOD program – time goes so fast!

As refreshing as my holidays were, it was straight back into things. Being the beginning of semester two, we were out at the Auckland University of Technology’s (AUT) orientation days. Again, it’s about being visible and providing support.

I also gave my first ever lecture (I’m used to doing workshops, not lecutres). This was to a group of second year nursing students and it was an awesome experience. Though it was a strange feeling to be standing at the bottom of a lecture theatre with these massive PowerPoint screens behind me. In the second week back we also had 24 new workshops booked and 10 of these were for places we haven’t delivered workshops to before!

One of the great things that happened this month was our Lets Get Together fundraising concert. Once every year Linda Farr, one of our Adult Advisors, puts together a rather massive show geared more towards adults with the proceeds going to Rainbow Youth. This year it was Lets Get Together, which was a fabulous variety show – there was lots of talent and laughs, and the concert raised around $7,000 towards Rainbow Youth.

The concert also saw the launch of Friends of Rainbow Youth, which is a system we have just launched to give people in the wider community a chance to support the work that Rainbow Youth does. We know there are a lot of people out there who wish that Rainbow Youth had been around when they where younger and some who have moved on but remember how much of a difference it made for them. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for anyone who wishes to make a regular donation to Rainbow Youth and find out how our services are growing and what they are achieving. Friends of Rainbow Youth will receive a newsletter twice a year keeping them informed.

For anyone who wants to become a Friend of Rainbow Youth it is a very simple process, we can send you the forms by email or you can drop by the Rainbow Youth Centre and fill them out. All it involves is a simple membership form and then an AP form.

Carpet was also laid down in our centre this month. The whole place looks more inviting and friendly. If you look at some previous pictures of our centre, you can see the huge difference the carpet has made. Now we just need to replace the couches and also get a bunch of colourful beanbags!

June 2005 – Stephen Denekamp

Published by Stephen Denekamp on June 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

Again it’s been another busy month. The highlight has to be the SS4Q (Safety in Schools for Queers) conference. This was held in Wellington (at the very inclusive church, St Andrews on the Terrace) and involved around 80 young people, 80 teachers and two dozen other adults from all around the country. The conference was about bringing people together to talk about the issue of homophobia in schools and how to make schools a safer place for students and teachers of ALL sexualities and ALL genders. I really enjoyed hearing from Rodney Croome who talked about how far Tasmania has come (definitely a role model for New Zealand to look at) and seeing Eugene Moore talk about homophobia. Another important part for me was seeing so many young people getting involved and working together.

This month some of the Rainbow Youth board members, facilitators, Lesley and myself had a workshop from the Human Rights Commission (HRC) around the Treaty of Waitangi. Marama from the HRC was fantastic and by the end of the workshop we had come up with lots of practical ideas on what we as an organisation (and as individuals) could do to make Rainbow Youth more diverse and affirming when it comes to culture. I’ll have to remember to keep you all updated as we start to implement some of the ideas over the year. It was really so much fun and also thought provoking, I’d strongly recommend every organisation or other interested groups of people to contact the HRC and have the same workshop!

Speaking of workshops, ours have been busy this month. There have been quite a few at schools and I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Hamilton and provide a workshop to a group of teachers and health professionals in the Waikato region. Once again the school holidays are approaching and I find myself wondering where the year has gone. I’m very much looking forward to term three of the school year, as this tends to be our busiest season in terms of workshops in schools.

Oh and before I forget, in the last update you would have seen pictures of us preparing the RY Centre for painting, take a look below and you’ll see our lovely new walls!!! Yay! We still need to have new carpet put down and then we’ll start decorating the place up again with artwork and posters. Remember, putting up posters that affirm diversity weather it’s in school, at work, or in your own home, do make a difference, and help to reach out to young people by including them in the environment you create. It’s about being proactive

“To make promise into reality, we need commitment.” – Chinnappan Baskar

June 2005 – Ricky Houghton

Published by Ricky Houghton on June 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

This month I am pleased to inform you that due to the mighty support of the “Vodafone Foundation New Zealand” we have been able to advance our dream of being able to move 7 families from state dependence to sustainable independence.

We have achieved this by commencing a low scale business incubator in the Far North, which supports, advocates and kick-starts economic development. Specifically the business incubator has been designed to provide prospective grass roots entrepreneurs with business advice business coaching, encouragement, mentoring, and planning from our premises based in Kaitaia.

Rueben Mare has been in the fitness industry for 50 years and holds a number of world powerlifting records. Against all odds he has beaten stomach and bowel cancer. His wife Beulah has many years in the corporate world and will watch the figures in the books while reuben concentrates on the figures of the members of which they have over 90 fully signed members in just 6 weeks WOW!!. This has allowed them to take on five full time personal trainers from off the dole queue and give them full time employment.

I’ll never be a millionaire sais reuben but I am thrilled that I can give back to my community especially the elderly and the young. The first person I acknowledged at our opening was you, because you helped me when others did not seem to care, the inspiration, encouragement and planning enabled me to see real possibilities sais reuben. So what exactly did we provide?, well first we sat down and listened to a couple who wanted to make a world of difference, we understood and tuned in to their dream, it reminded me when I was in front of the Vodafone foundation board pitching my dream. We spent some time on the whiteboard and brainstormed next we prioritized tasks and put together a plan. The pictures tell you what happened after that, all within two months.

The primary purpose of our business incubator amongst other things is to create local wealth, create a substantial and sustainable number of new jobs, accelerate the formation, growth and success rates of small business in the Far North, provide much needed quality start-up infrastructure support to prospective businesses, assist with the development of business / marketing plans, prepare and support finance / bank applications (The most difficult hurdle most entrepreneurs encounter), assist in the rapid development of small businesses and retain them in the Far North, help entrepreneurs understand and evaluate their business opportunity and assist entrepreneurs to identify their strengths and weaknesses in their business planning skills, management skills, education, and capital resources. There are plenty of Reuben’s out there waiting to make the world of difference to their communities, Kia Ora vodafone foundation new zealand for funding me so that I can use my skills in my community to establish and accelerate growth and success to entrepreneurs in a timely, autonomous, financially viable, and freestanding manner.

June 2005 – Joanne Thorne

Published by Joanne Thorne on June 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

As the weather deteriorates into a chilly winter I am finding myself more often than not right out in the midst of it!

I have just returned from a monitoring trip in the Waitotara Valley where I spent a few days pinpointing our four male kiwi to determine if they are nesting yet. It looks like one bird may be nesting, having been in the same spot for 3 weeks. Two others are still moving about weekly. The fourth was a little trickier to work out as he has been in the same inaccessible spot for the past two weeks. After an hour of radio tracking him I found myself following a ridge that suddenly dropped away into a stream with shear walls. “Gizmo”, the bird I was tracking, was on the other side of the stream that I wasn’t able to cross! I will keep an eye on the spot over the coming weeks and if it is a nest we will have to find some way to cross the stream…

This month I have been doing a lot of kiwi listening at our new Operation Nest Egg site in order to locate male birds. If we have an approximate location this makes it easier for our kiwi contractor to catch the birds quickly. The listening proved very successful and we have identified two neighbouring pairs, the males of which we will try to catch in July. As well as listening at night, I have been busy getting familiar with the area during the day in order to make things easier when I begin nest monitoring the new birds.

As the months pass we are getting closer to the day when we have our first chicks at Bushy Park. In preparation for this I met with a Massey University wildlife vet to draw up some health screening protocols for the chicks and to get advice on what quarantine measures we will need to take before releasing our chicks back into the wild. Because Bushy Park reserve is currently “kiwi disease free” the chicks have a lower risk of catching a disease. However, it also means that we will need to keep up high standards of health screening in order for Bushy Park to remain clean and thus be used as a kiwi creche for many years to come.

I look forward to next month when we start catching our new birds and hopefully have some good news on which birds are nesting. Fingers crossed!

July 2005 – Diana Hickey

Published by Diana Hickey on June 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

Greatly inspired by the wonderful presentations on sibling support by the Spinettas at the CCF Conference, the staff at CHOC have decided to plan a sibling’s programme.

This programme will be modelled on the current Starship programme which has shown great success so far. Janet Mikkelsen tells us on the current Child Cancer Foundation website (see http://www.childcancer.org.nz/child-cancer/fs_article_1.asp), that siblings are placed in a situation where their needs must take a lesser priority for a long time and this can lead them to conclude they are not as important to the family. They have a need for information about their sick sibling and that is where our sibling days are important. …(Through the programme)…Siblings learn a lot, are made to feel special and important, meet other children in a similar situation and have an opportunity to discuss ways to cope with their feelings. (Mikkelsen 2004). CHOC staff locally (in Christchurch) and the Child Cancer Foundation nationally are committed to family-centred care and a multidisciplinary approach. CHOC’s sibling programme will have an added element of Art therapy group sessions that accommodate both older and younger siblings and we look forward to running them initially in September/October 2005 to coincide with the school holidays…so watch this space!

On the subject of articles, I finally submitted my first research article on the benefits of art therapy on young people with cancer to ANATA (the Australian National Art Therapy Association) for their first journal…firsts all round really. Writing it up made me realise how much more I’ve learned in the 7+ months that I’ve been here fulltime. Already there’s easily enough material for a book. Maybe I should talk to Tracy Richardson (again) I hear she’s just been published! It’s such a treat being able to keep up with the other World of Difference winners though their diaries. I feel that we are all so busy working away with our passions that we don’t get to connect much but these pages are so valuable for me to continue be inspired!!

Every so often it hits me how I’ve been given this opportunity to do what I love and I’m floored by the great gift I’ve been given by being involved with the Child Cancer Foundation. I had no idea of the scale of the statement Vodafone made by suggesting that we could make a “World of Difference”, but as this stage of the year the changes that I see around me in both subtle and more obvious ways are astounding.

On that note, we recently lost a young patient who was a riot of creativity. She was never shy about showing her work to the world, so I hope you enjoy a wee tribute to her through her art this month.

Last but not least we has a mid-winter party on CHOC recently which saw Santa (in my eyes at least) strutting his stuff at the right time of year (temperature wise!). Feast your eyes on some of the smiles that he conjured up!

June 2005 – Diana Hickey

Published by Diana Hickey on June 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

What a fantastic month. It started with a bang at the Child Cancer Foundations national conference where I was a presenter. With my voice a bare whisper I was fortunate to have an excellent sound technician and system. I also had inspiring company as my co-presenters for the conference were the “Spinettas”, John and Pat, who are both experts in their fields of Child/Adolescent psychology, Louise Webster, paediatric psychologist for Starship Hospital Auckland and a host of other professionals who work in oncology. Listening to these people speak about their passion which also happens to be their work was an inspiring lesson. I gave a PowerPoint presentation on art therapy as a means of communication for children and adolescents with cancer….sounds like a mouthful but in actual fact it was very straightforward. The bones of the PPP were to share the (consented) images of the inspired artists that I’ve encountered since beginning my research here at Christchurch Hospital. These in themselves were powerful without explanation, but I also used them to illustrate the simplicity and complexities involved within the therapeutic relationship that is art therapy. Families and professionals alike were very forthcoming with their feedback. Some had read the research previously but to be faced with the larger than life visual results seemed just the ticket in clearly illustrating what it’s all about.

The result is that I’ve been asked to present art therapy as a service to health professionals in oncology from Invercargill to Auckland, I’ll need at least another year to manage that and continue to offer art therapy here in Christchurch with any consistency! It’s exciting to know that the medical community that I’ve encountered so far are so enthusiastic about such a new service though. That in itself makes me feel like this year has made an impact that makes all the difference.

Another great adventure this month was facilitating a workshop with the Christchurch Paediatrics Oncology team on acknowledging achievements in their ever-changing and ever-challenging workplace. The title was “I did well- Do we celebrate our successes?” In an environment where survival is tantamount and excellence is expected, I wondered how easy or difficult it is for the great people who work here to absorb and acknowledge their triumphs, whether internally or publicly. Can the treatment or journey of a child be considered successful even if that child dies? Initially Tony White (Paediatric Psychologist) and I had thought the workshop up as a means to draw the team into experiencing some art therapy, but it turns out that there are very ingrained thoughts and feelings about the subject and its celebration. We looked at mans inherent slant towards the need to survive and how that negates celebrating as there will always be a faster hunt, a longer journey, a harder winter. We also looked at different cultures and their approaches. We are a tough nation when it comes to honouring achievements, surely its time to gently accept the great things that we can do within ourselves.

Hmmmmm…ironically, a few days later the Cancer Society contacted me about presenting at their conference “Coping with Success”, which was a big surprise…but seemingly timely. It seems that the art of the happy accident is well and truly in play. With July already looming and the launch of the World of Difference 2005 applications, I hope that many of those highly passionate and capable people out there will step forward and allow themselves to be acknowledged. I hope that the Child Cancer Foundation and the hospital have gained some precious ground through allowing me to represent and work alongside them so far. In the tradition of Stephen Denekamp, I will end with a quote… “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure” Marianne Williamson…I’ve run out of space but the remainder of the quote is really worth a read…go well, till next time…D

June 2005 – Debbie Fewtrell

Published by Dr. Debbie Fewtrell on June 20, 2005 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

On the move!

This month I have been mostly nestled away in my office emersed in study and lecture preparation. In fact I’ve even swapped offices with my husband to get away from the centre of the house where the children are very audible (and with four boys we do audible!) The other bonus being that I could leave all my superfluous junk behind in his space to “sort out later when I have more time!”

Auckland Autism NZ Conference-Sunday 14th August

This conference is a wonderful opportunity for me to spread information about the biomedical treatment of autism and what can be achieved here in NZ. It is one of my key engagements for the world of difference year. The day is packed with a broad range of interesting speakers; three sessions will run concurrently at the Waipuna Conference Centre. I urge anyone touched personally or professionally with ASD to come along.For more information contact Petrisha Govender on 2761396 ext 5 or email petrisha@autismakl.org.nz Discounted early bird registrations continue until 29th July.

A multimodal approach is crucial for ASD kids to achieve their maximum potential. I would be the last to proclaim that the biomedical approach is the answer to everything. I do feel though that if the child’s biochemistry has been improved then they will obviously be able to achieve far more in the teaching environment.

Last week I gave an informal talk to Autism Northland who travel to Whangarei from as far north as Kaitaia. My focus was predominantly the Pfeiffer approach (see April diary report) and the gluten-free, casein-free diet. Gluten is the protein in wheat, casein is the protein in dairy. I believe every ASD child deserves a trial of this diet as the results can be significant in some cases. Whilst most of the audience were struggling with the logistics of the concept eg “If my child lives on weetbix and milk he would starve to death!” I was very lucky to have a local Kerikeri woman in the audience. I had seen her little boy over 3 years ago just before leaving my general practice. On that occasion he had screamed food intolerance at me; red ears, pale doughy skin, dark rings under his eyes and off- the-wall behaviour. Although the consultation was in fact intended for his sister, I had in passing recommended that she tried removing diary products from his diet. She could not have been a better advocate for the dietary approach. She was amazed at the degree of improvement in behaviour and health of her child who was now mainstreamed at school. She proved a great motivator for the other parents to give it a go. Serendipity at its best! Just one simple intervention for that particular child had made an enormous difference to him and his family. Oh that it were always so easy! For more information on all aspects of the gluten-free casein-free diet look at www.gfcfdiet.com and www.autismndi.com.

Anyhow it’s back to study for me; I have no time for complacency. Thanks to the Vodafone NZ Foundation I’ll be flying to Queenstown in two weeks to sit the Fellowship exam for the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine. I’d better get cracking!