Hot rodders rev up for toddler

Flynn Brodie has some toughlooking hot rodders in his corner now.

As reported by Kapi- Mana News last month, the Titahi Bay 2-year-old is stricken with rare pachyonychai congenita (PC), a non-contagious skin disorder that affects only him in this country and 1000 people around the world. It leads to painful foot blisters, thick nails, bumpy skin and cysts.

A gala day was held on June 2 at Titahi Bay School to raise money for research into PC, in conjunction with similar events around the world. Online fundraising raised $1191 and selling bric-a-brac, sausages, raffles and face-painting at the school brought in another $3584, for a total of $4775, which Flynn’s mum Jo describes as ing’’.

‘‘The day was cold and a bit wintry but I was gobsmacked at how many people came out, it was amazing. At any one time I reckon there was 500 people at the school.’’

Jo says one of the coolest aspects of the day was the visit by the Western Bay Street Rodders club, who brought a number of

‘‘just overwhelm- their cars along.

‘‘These guys were so cool,’’ Jo says. ‘‘They have decided for the rest of this year that Flynn is their charity and are going to hold rallies and other events to raise money for him. When they told me this it was one of those moments that just made me burst into tears. I had a a few of those during the day.’’

Jo says it took a while to ‘‘come back down to earth’’ after the event, but now life will continue on for the Brodies, fitting frequent hospital visits for Flynn around fulltime work for her and husband Liam.

They were also grateful for more moral support. A family in Brisbane, who have a 20-year-old son with PC, were alerted to the Kapi-Mana News article and have been in touch.