Daffodil deliveries for a good cause

SWIFT: Fastways Courier Lisa Vanderberg delivering daffodils for Daffodil Day.

DAFFODILS will be carried across Wairarapa today as Fastway Couriers Wairarapa deliver 900 bunches of the flowers throughout the region to help mark the 25th annual Daffodil Day in New Zealand on Friday.

Regional franchises of Fastway Couriers all over the country have been delivering the daffodils for the Cancer Society for free, for the past 10 years.

Courier Lisa Vanderberg kicked off the Wairarapa flower deliveries yesterday morning and said it would take a full two days to get the daffodils to the 300 businesses who had pre-bought them.

"We're proud to be part of it," said Ms Vanderberg.

Therese and Russell Boniface have owned Fastway Couriers Wairarapa for four years and Mrs Boniface said the Cancer Society was a good charity to support.

"Cancer is an insidious disease that affects everybody in the community in one way or another."

Mrs Boniface said her mother and her husband's father had both died of cancer.

"In a community like this we really like to get involved in something that affects the whole community," said Mrs Boniface.

Josie Savage, co-ordinator of the Wairarapa Cancer Society Daffodil Day, said Fastway Couriers Wairarapa provided and "amazing service" and their support was "exceptional".

On Friday there will be 13 stalls set up in Masterton, selling daffodils and Cancer Society merchandise and two stalls each in Carterton, Featherston and Martinborough.

Greytown had their street collections yesterday but Property Brokers will have a sausage sizzle fundraiser outside their Greytown office on Friday.

Masterton The Warehouse will also be fundraising for the Cancer Society with a sausage sizzle on Friday and Saturday.

Mark Vallance, Cancer Society NZ national business systems and development manager, said the support from Fastway Couriers enabled the Cancer Society to reduce fundraising costs and "direct more funds to core patient services in the local community".

He said Daffodil Day last year raised more than $5 million in New Zealand.-For more information about the work of the Cancer Society, visit www.cancernz.org.nz