Respiratory Community News

Heremana te Kōpūtōtara touring again!

Heremana te Kōpūtōtara (Sailor the Pufferfish) and his friend Hinerongonui Kingi are swimming into kura throughout Gisborne and Wellington this February and March to present their bilingual asthma musical road show!

The educational musical educates tamariki on the triggers and management of asthma, and what to do in an asthma emergency.

So far, Heremana has educated over 1200 tamariki and travelled to over 25 schools throughout Te Ika a Māui.

If your kura is interested in receiving an asthma show, and would like to be added to the waiting list, please email info@arfnz.org.nz with ‘Sailor Show Waiting List’ in the subject line.

Manawatū breathing easier

Towards the end of February, Letitia and Ruby visited the Manawatū Breathe Easy Support Group. Alongside an update on the forthcoming asthma and COPD guidelines, Letitia discussed the differences between asthma and COPD. It was also raised whether or not there is any research into whether asthma may be genetic, with Letitia discussing the research on the Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) genetic variation. A big thank you to Shona and Owen, who graciously invited us to meet with the Manawatū Breathe Easy support group. It was lovely to meet you all and we hope to be back again soon!

New World community gives back

A few months back, the Foundation was fortunate enough to participate in New World Porirua’s customer vote program.

New World shoppers were given the opportunity to vote for their preferred charity or community group throughout the month of November. From the votes collected, the Foundation received a total of $600 which went towards supporting our national COPD awareness campaign.

We would like to thank New World Porirua and the surrounding community for their support and generosity throughout November, we really appreciate it!