Clean up commended

Editor,

He mihi whaanui tenei ki a koutou i hui tahi i runga i te reo karanga o to tatau Paa Harakeke.

Heartfelt greetings to all of the people of the Porirua community and others who travelled from Rotorua and Hastings to take part in the Cannons Creek Lakes Reserve Paa Harakeke clean-up on April 14 to 15.

The day started with a mihi whakatau from Taku Parai which led to very enlightening sharing from John Hodges and Tangi Robinson regarding the whakapapa and the planting of the various flax plants. Many different organisations participated including Friends of Te Maara Roa, PD Corrections workers, Te Wananga o Aotearoa, Whitireia Polytechnic and Porirua City Council.

These groups are acknowledged for their generosity whether it was through resources or time spent on the event.

Numerous connections were created through this community initiative and the event was truly felt on many levels.

The clean-up of the Paa Harakeke was a testimony to the amount of people who care and treasure this beautiful ‘‘hidden jewel’’ in Cannons Creek.

The call will go out again to clean the Paa Harakeke, so all interested people please support this meaningful event. NGA KAI RARANGA O PORIRUA

(Weavers of Porirua) putting them in danger not to.

I was diagnosed with asthma when I was nine; there was no treatment for it then so I just had to live with it.

Just before I turned 50, I went to my doctor with what I thought was the flu, which I had frequently during autumn and winter.

I was rushed into a room to use a nebuliser after blowing into a peak flow meter (never seen either one before) and I was told if I had been any lower on the meter I would have been rushed to hospital.

I freaked out for about three days after this, thinking I could have died like my youngest daughter 11 years earlier when she was 13.

She had an attack when she was nine, one at 11, and I think because she had seen her older brother struggling with his asthma, she was frightened when she had an attack at 13.

Two weeks later, after she had recovered she stayed home with a throat infection.

She went to the doctor on a Friday, again Saturday and died Saturday night with an asthmatic spasm caused by bacterial asthma.

It took only four bouts with the first three two years apart to kill an otherwise perfectly healthy young girl.

There was more knowledge and publicity about asthma by the time I turned 50 but there are a lot of people out there with no personal experience of it who don’t realise how dangerous it is. I coped because I had to.

Anyway, Selina Paul’s little boy at three is too young to develop the survival skills we had to learn in my day.

We hear a lot about abused children nowadays. This mother is trying her best to save hers; she deserves a helping hand. ROSEMARY ARTHUR, Takapuwahia

(Letter abridged)