The ladies of Central Taranaki Provincial Rural Women are issuing a challenge to other groups and organisations.
"We want to see other charitable groups come on board and get fundraising too," says Margaret Vickers, who adds she and her fellow rural women were delighted to give Michael Joyce, chairman ofthe Taranaki Health Foundation (THF) a sizeable donation towards the purchase of a new angiography machine for the Base Hospital.
Michael says the THF is "blown away" by the generosity of the group, and he encourages other groups to consider helping raise some of the $1.2 million the THF need to raise to purchase the new machine.
The machine itself will cost $3.6 million, with the Taranaki District Health Board (TDHB) having prioritised $1.2 million from its operating capital and the Taranaki Electricity Trust (TET) pledging $1.2 million towards the machine as well.
Helen Jones, of the Central Taranaki Provincial Rural Women, says the choice to fundraise for the machine "was an obvious one really, it is something that will benefit so many people, so we were happy to get involved".
Joyce Orr says it is just one of the many causes the Rural Women support, and they are always looking for ways to help and support the community they live in.
According to the THF, an average of 400 Taranaki based patients having to travel to Waikato Hospital each year to receive angioplasty treatment. This number will significantly decrease with a new angiography machine and suite at Base Hospital. "It's not just the patients, but their families, who also have to travel to Waikato with them, it impacts a lot of people in our community," says Margaret.
She says now they have "started the ball rolling," they would love to hear of more groups and organisations finding ways to fundraise for the machine.
