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Announcing the 2010 Beneficiary

The beneficiary for the 2010 Ball, to be held on Friday 3rd September, is The Melanoma Foundation. They were selected from over 55 applicants, having impressed the Trustees with their great presentation and the passion and support they are able to generate.

"We are really pleased to have selected The Melanoma Foundation and believe our contribution will make a real difference to this young organisation" said Chairman Don Graham. "They will be able to make a big step forward in their action plan to better support people with serious melanoma, and to effectively educate New Zealanders about how deadly later stage melanoma is and how to reduce their own risk and spot melanoma early."

The Melanoma Foundation of New Zealand is a registered charitable trust, a young charity formed in 2004, which is working hard to reduce the incidence and dreadful impact of melanoma in New Zealand.

New Zealand has the highest melanoma incidence rate in the world. Recent figures put our incidence even ahead of Australia's. Every year around 300 New Zealanders die from melanoma and there are 2000 new diagnoses. The death rates amongst New Zealand men are even increasing! These are shocking statistics for a cancer that is largely preventable.

Although most early melanoma is successfully treated through surgery, once melanoma is invasive it is a horrible cancer. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are not proven to assist in treatment of Stage 4 melanoma. Melanoma is taking the lives of many young adults as well as older New Zealanders.

The Melanoma Foundation works in three goal areas:

  • Improving the outcome for people affected by melanoma. This includes providing information and support for patients and their families. They also advocate that New Zealanders should be offered service and treatment equal to the best in the world. In the future they hope to be able to support melanoma research and better facilities.
  • Community awareness and education about melanoma in the interest of prevention and early detection of melanoma.
  • Fostering communication and co-ordination amongst professionals whose work relates to melanoma.

The following is an extract from an email sent to the trustees from Heather Hyland, Executive Director of the Melanoma Foundation on hearing about their success in becoming the 2010 beneficiary.

"Thank you and the rest of your Board so much for choosing the Melanoma Foundation. It's an unbelievable thrill. My phone has been running hot and there has been a lot of excited shouting and more than a few tears. One Trustee described a fellow Board member as sounding like "a giddy, idiotic schoolboy" when he was relaying the news. Our Chairman, who received my call at Wellington Airport, was completely dumbstruck and refused to believe me for a while. And when I was speaking on the phone to Richard my husband could hear him shouting from the other side of the living room. Kathryn was over the moon. She took the call while waiting to disembark from her plane, and asked me if she could announce it to the whole plane!

I know you understand the impact this will have on our young organisation, and the effect strengthening the Melanoma Foundation will have longer term in New Zealand. You wouldn't have chosen us otherwise. An extra gift is the gift you have given right now to the hearts of Kathryn and Pele and Julie and the other brave melanoma patients who help the Foundation and who so desperately want to raise awareness about melanoma to save others from a similar plight.

I really look forward to working with you all over the next year. Let the hard work begin!"

Please refer to the website www.melanoma.org.nz to learn about the trust and their work.

$205,000 Raised for StarJam



$205,000 Provides a Great Fillip to StarJam
A few weeks after all the pledges had been collected for the 2009 Grocery Charity Ball, the Trustees were thrilled to find that the final tally for the night exceeded $200,000 for just the third time in the Ball's history.

"It's been a fabulous response" said Grocery Charity Ball Trust Chairman Don Graham. "When we picked StarJam to be the 2009 Beneficiary, the Trustees believed that they were a very worthy charity. But it's great to have that confirmed by the grocery industry itself .. their enthusiasm to support StarJam has been fantastic!"

Julie Bartlett, Founder and Chief Executive of StarJam, was equally effusive. "We recognise that there's a lot of worthy charities out there competing for the donor dollar, so it was great to be chosen by the grocery industry as the beneficiary of the Ball. The funds will be life-changing for us .. and enable StarJam to do many of the things that were previously on our wish-list only."

Recently, Trustees of the Grocery Charity Ball handed over the BIG cheque to StarJam .. along with a real cheque that the bank will be happy to cash. Seven New Zealand charities have now benefited by more than $1.4 million from the six Balls that have been held since 2004.