A sporting success for Project Promise

A star-studded sporting panel including Sir John Kirwan provided plenty of entertainment as part of a night that raised about $55,000 for Project Promise.

Sir John was joined by sporting greats Grant Fox, Andrew Jones and Northland's own Black Cap Tim Southee for a panel interview by Doug Golightly that had the crowd of about 400 laughing as part of the the Project Promise Charity Auction and sports dinner at Kensington Stadium on Friday night.

Project Promise, the brainchild of the Northland Community Foundation, aims to raise $3 million to build a new cancer treatment unit at Whangarei Hospital to make life easier for the many Northland cancer patients, although some will still have to travel to Auckland for some treatments, including radiotherapy.

While a final tally was yet to be calculated, organisers estimated about $33,000 was raised from the auction plus another $32,000 from ticket sales.

Chairman of the Project Promise events group Colin Twyman deemed the night a "fabulous, wonderful event" and thanked everyone who had helped make the evening, presented by Barfoot and Thompson, possible.

Twenty-seven items were up for auction, including some classy sporting memorabilia.

A framed shirt signed by cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar, from the recent Black Caps series against India, had cricketing fans digging deep into their wallets with the shirt raising $3800.

A 2012 All Blacks jersey signed by the current World Cup champions fetched $2450, while a framed jersey signed by Dan Carter collected $2300.

The bids came quick for item 12 - a dinner for four people cooked in your own home by multi-award winning chef Brenton Low. The first bid was $700, but by the time the hammer came down the price tag had risen to $1800.

But it was a framed limited-edition Sir Edmund Hillary ice axe that was highly sought after, raising $3900.

Tim Southee told the crowd he had grown up wanting to be an All Black, but had to settle for second-best and ended up playing cricket.

Andrew Jones revealed Sir Richard Hadlee was a neat freak and even ironed his undies.

Sir John recalled his first experience rooming with Richard Lowe and how he had been bullied into making him a cup of tea every night before lights out.

And Grant Fox's mum never knew her young son had stolen a sheet and cut out the number 13 and sewn it on his black jesery.