The charity behind our national children's hospital is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
The Starship Foundation was founded on August 18 1992 by a group of women philanthropists known as the 'Friends of Starship'.
They created a community of supporters through their networks and since then over $160 million has been raised for the hospital.
Founding chairwoman Dame Rosie Horton became involved after hearing one patient’s story.
"I bumped into the mother of a critically ill young girl from Southland. She’d been told that the only hope for her daughter was to go to Starship. But it had taken her four days to travel to the hospital. A lot can happen in four days, a lot can happen in a matter of hours, when it comes to children’s health."
The hospital had only been built the previous year, and was in urgent need of basic paediatric equipment.
Chief executive Aisha Daji Punga told 1News: "Back in 1994 is when we started transporting critically ill and sick children from all across the country."
Through the foundation's support the National Air Ambulance service brings around 200 children to the hospital each year.
"In 2000, it was the first liver transplant made possible by these donations for a child in New Zealand," Punga said.
"We transformed care in cancer with a refurbished oncology ward and we've just raised $15 million dollars to expand our national intensive paediatric care unit."
She said there are 60 programmes of work that the charity's supporting right now, and believes in a decades time we will need a new hospital.
"The Starship Foundation has been critical for the last 30 years and it's going to be critical for the next 30."
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