How far do you think you could walk to save a life?

How about 12,523 kms? That’s how far a team of specialists from the Mutima Project based in Christchurch will be travelling in September this year. We are travelling to Zambia for three weeks where we will carry out the first of 100 heart valve replacements on young Zambians..

In Zambia, Mutima means heart and we are appealing to your heart to help us on our fundraising drive to get us there.

We invite you to join us on a sponsored walkathon around North Hagley park entitled Walk to Zambia (see the map and list of online fundraisers here). To reach our 12,523 km target we need 2,083 people to walk the six kilometre distance around North Hagley Park. We would like you, your family and friends to help raise funds by collecting sponsorship and join us on the walk. We need $500,000 to make the first trip happen.

Can you walk six kilometres to help save a life of a young Zambian who desperately needs a heart valve replacement?

Date:                    Sunday, 28th March 2010
Time:                   10:00am
Venue:                Armargh St bridge entrance, North Hagley Park


Please assist us by getting as much sponsorship as possible by registering for the walk in the left hand column and then use either our electronic sponsorship form or download one from the left hand column.(all the links are still available after registering)

 

PS - Thanks to support from medical companies, we’ve managed to bring the cost of each heart valve operation in the project down to around $6,000 but that is still out of reach for someone who lives on $1 a day. A donation of $1,000 will buy a new mechanical heart valve, $25 can buy a set of singe-use tubing used to connect the patient to the heart and lung machine, $95 can pay for a set of sterile linen needed for one operation or $3.50 will buy a pair of sterile gloves.