An impassioned pre-Christmas plea from a Tauranga lawyer has resulted in a gift of new bikes for more than 60 children in Cambodia.
Denise Arnold, a co-director at law firm Lyon O'Neale Arnold and founder of the Cambodia Charitable Trust, asked people to consider forgoing Christmas "stuff" in exchange for giving the gift of a bike.
Ms Arnold said she had just returned from a trip to Cambodia just before Christmas and struggled to come to terms with how much many people in New Zealand received for Christmas that they did not need, "compared to how little the people in Cambodia have".
"For children in Cambodia, a bike is not just an exciting gift, it is the key to education. Many children stop going to school because they have to walk so far," she said.