LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

An open letter to all who supported the Kiser family in their trip to America: Attending the conference in America gave us the opportunity to meet other families living with the same conditions and gave us some very valuable personal connections. It also equipped us with better knowledge and understanding so that we can manage Lucas going forward and help other families in New Zealand.

With the rarity of this syndrome in New Zealand, the specialists are also learning about the condition with us. They quite often refer to case studies found and discuss his case with specialists world-wide. It was hugely significant for us hearing these doctors speaking at the conference, real-life stories to be heard and introduced Lucas to some of the doctors who are already familiar with his case.

We could have not experienced this without all of you.

Thank you so much to Team Hope for their contribution towards our airfares and the Disneyland tickets. This sure was extremely overwhelming to receive and please know that we absolutely loved every minute of Disneyland and were so grateful for the opportunity to do this as a family. We are so lucky to have a local charity like yourselves with the families you help and all the work you do is truly inspirational.

Thank you to Francis Douglas Memorial College for holding an Auction Charity night. This night was just so fantastic! We are so grateful for all the effort from everyone at FDMC and the community to make this happen. Thank you to FDMC for all your efforts, Peter McDonald and Patty (Patrick) Gower. I know this was a huge job for you all and you should be so proud of yourselves for making it such an incredible, successful, memorable evening, Thank you to everyone who attended, donated raffles and auction items for the night. Please know how extremely humbled and appreciative our family is for the phenomenal donation.

Thank you to Little Fighters Trust for your contribution. Please know how generous this was and a real credit to you and all the work you do for families in the community.

Thank you to the Stratford Press and other media for allowing us to share our stories to the community.

Thank you to our sisters Heather McDonald and Michelle Kiser for setting up a give a little page and for everyone who contributed towards this.

To family, friends, schools, clubs, businesses and even strangers, and each and every one of you in the community we could not be on this journey with Lucas without you. The love, support, thoughts and donations have been just so kind and so humbling and we sure are so lucky and privileged to be living in a community with you all. From the bottom of our hearts. MICHAEL, SONIA, LUCAS AND ANDRE KISER

Eltham Reading the story about the Kai Kitchen feeding hungry children in Stratford raised some questions for me.

How is it, that in a country where we have a benefit system, we have social services and health care, do we still have children going without?

The answer seems to be priorities. As I shop in the supermarket, I see women with children putting cigarettes, beer and then even a Lotto ticket in their shopping and very little fruit or vegetables.

People say food is expensive, but bread for sandwiches is a dollar, a few loaves of that, add an apple or a banana and you can feed your children enough for a lunch. They don’t need packaged muesli bars, chips, yoghurts or cans of drink, they have water fountains at school k and a sandwich and some fruit will tide them through the day. One less packet of cigarettes and a few more basic items in your shopping and you don’t need to put your hand out or let your children go hungry. M SANDERS