Fundraising efforts by the Elite School of Beauty and Spa and Melville community have raised close to $5000 for Tyson Hollran and his family.
Tyson, 12, is battling acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
A fundraiser which included an all-day massage-marathon, sausage sizzle and various raffles was held on Sunday to support him.
“We were just blown away by it, you think of all the horrible stuff that is happening in the world and then people do stuff like this, it’s amazing,” said Awhi Hollran, Tyson’s mum.
Krissy Witehira (far right) organised the weekend fundraiser. Photo: supplied
Krissy Witehira, the manager of Elite School, organised the event. She said the community’s combined efforts helped raise $4600 for the family.
She said her students gave out 105 massages on the day, and there is more money to be raised yet as there are raffles that won’t be drawn until the end of the month.
Helping hands – massage student Tayla Ericksen at work on Sunday.
“On the day there was lots of aroha, lots of love, for Tyson and his family. I couldn’t be prouder of the Elite Hamilton staff and students,” she said.
Tyson’s Southnet touch rugby coach, Deano Witehira, ran the fundraisers’ sausage sizzle alongside his social rugby team, the Melville Mustangs.
The Melville Mustangs (president’s grade) ran the day’s sausage sizzle, from left to right, Matt Cole, Deano Witehira, Tony Worsop, Jaxon Cole, Mike Ale.
Tyson and his family couldn’t attend the event because of isolation requirements, but viewed a live stream of the event, watched raffles being drawn, and listened to the day’s speeches.
“We were overwhelmed by the support. Krissy is amazing, that is just what she does, she supports not only us but everybody in the community. She goes above and beyond for lots of people and their families,” said Awhi.
The money will help the family with their travel costs. They travel back and forth from Auckland each week for Tyson’s treatments.
She said most of the money will be saved, so that if Tyson does need a specialist cancer treatment called Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, they will be able to meet travel costs to Australia.
