Media Release
October 17, 2012

Stunning Auckland homes open their doors for a great cause

Children in the Pacific Islands suffering from cancer are set to benefit from the funds raised when ten stunning Auckland homes open their doors for a great cause in early November.

The second annual Your Home & Garden Festive Friday Christmas Home Tour (2012) sees the owners of an eclectic mix of beautiful homes roll out their welcome mats to guests with an eye for beautiful architecture, gorgeous interiors, fine food and festive styling.

Each home will showcase a different festive theme matched with Christmas cuisine created on-site by ten leading New Zealand chefs, including Sean Connelly from award-winning restaurant The Grill and inaugural Masterchef winner Brett McGregor.

The homes on the tour range from a radically renovated 1950s bungalow to a minimalist cliff-top property and a 1930s Spanish Mission-style home. The festive themes are just as diverse and include the more traditional to the casual, the child-friendly to the resort-themed, as well as Pacifica, South American and Spanish-inspired Christmases.

Your Home & Garden editor Leanne Moore says the line up of homes is nothing short of spectacular and the festive-themed styling, coupled with the talented chefs in each kitchen, makes this a home tour with a difference.

“Visitors will be inspired by these ten unique homes which have been chosen not because they are showhomes but because they are exciting, filled with personality and offer something slightly unexpected,” she says.

“Our readers love to see the variety of beautiful homes we feature in the pages of Your Home & Garden and this tour gives them that rare and exclusive access to some of Auckland’s best, while at the same time knowing that every cent of their ticket price is going to a very special cause.”

The aim is to raise more than $60,000 for charity with 100 per cent of tour proceeds being donated to World Child Cancer’s Pacific Chapter to help alleviate child cancer suffering and mortality rates in Samoa, Tonga and Fiji.

“Until recently, children in the Pacific who developed cancer had poor access to the treatment which cures 80 percent of children with cancer in developed countries like New Zealand,” says Dr Scott Macfarlane, World Child Cancer New Zealand trustee and paediatric oncologist at Starship.

“Our work hopes to change that and significantly improve outcomes for children in these Pacific Islands suffering from cancer. The funds from this home tour enable us to carry out vital training in techniques for treatment of childhood cancers.”

The money raised from the 2011 Your Home & Garden Home Tour facilitated visits by New Zealand-based oncologists, nurses and family support workers from Starship Hospital and Christchurch Oncology Services to the Pacific for training and education. It also supported visits by Pacific doctors and nurses to New Zealand for educational meetings and experience in the specialist oncology units in Auckland and Christchurch.

Funds raised from the 2012 tour will continue to support this programme as well as funding a specific teaching programme for Pacific nurses in Auckland in association with the Pasifika Medical Association.

The Your Home & Garden Festive Friday Christmas Home Tour takes place in Auckland on Friday, November 9, 10am – 4pm. Tickets cost $60 and are available from Ticketek.

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