“When my little cousin was born she couldn’t walk that well, they put her in a cast and everything and now she can walk perfectly fine. I just want to help the people who need help more and more every day,” McPherson said.
Bianca’s mum Sasha McPherson said bids initially climbed as high as $7000 but fell back to $2000 as people retracted their pledges.
“Disappointing for us but at the end of the day we want to make sure that whoever the winning bidder is can actually pay for it. You’d hate to think that someone had got caught up and excited to be part of something but not able to follow through,” she said.
The chip's maker Bluebird came to the party and offered to match the amount of the winner's bid.
The sting was tempered by a well-timed message from Bluebird which, halfway through the auction, offered to match the amount of the winner’s bid.
In the final hours of the auction a bidder upped the ante to $3000 and then, with minutes remaining, added a second bid to win the chip for a whopping $5000.
The bidder then contacted the family and agreed to double their pledge if Bluebird would do the same.
Trade Me also waived their success fees to ensure 100 percent of the money raised would go to Starship and said they were thrilled with the final result for Bianca’s heart-shaped hole chip.
Starship Foundation chief executive Jo Simon said the $20,000 would go into a grant system to pay for research, equipment and the national air ambulance that brought child patients to Starship Hospital.
“To people like Bianca we just say a big thank you. Thank you to her and her supporters and their efforts to support our work because without them we can’t support the vital work that the hospital and the Starship children’s health service needs,” Simon said.
Bianca McPherson said she hoped “every coin will help”.
“I just want to say a humongous thank you to the winner of the auction,” she said.
