Celebrity Golfers To Drive Home The Message

MEDIA RELEASE
3 July 2009

Celebrity Golfers To Drive Home The Message

On Thursday 12 November, well known television presenter Peter Williams and Lance Murray, New Zealand Golfer’s editor, will take on and lead the annual Golf Marrowthon 100 Hole Challenge to help raise funds for the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation.

Both Williams and Murray are accomplished golfers. Having started at age 13 in Omarau, Williams has been a single figure golfer for over forty years and is currently a member of the Akarana Golf Club. He has over thirty years experience as a presenter and reporter in the broadcasting industry in addition to holding many golf administration positions, including presidency of the Akarana Golf Club, an Auckland Golf representative selector and current board member for New Zealand Golf.

Lance Murray is well known country-wide having started the popular free golfing publication, the Golfer Gazette in 1997, now known as the NZ Golfer. Conscious of the 100 hole challenge, Murray notes, “The most I have ever played is 108 holes over a weekend.” Currently a member of Formosa Country Club and playing of a respectable handicap of 17, Murray started his golf in Northern Wairoa in 1982, but playing much of his golf at Helensville Golf Club.

The Golf Marrowthon 100 Hole Challenge is no ordinary charity event as it is famed for attracting professional golfers, celebrities and golf enthusiasts, along with golfers from all handicap levels, to test their skills and endurance in the ultimate challenge of playing 100 holes in a single day.

“We are delighted to have such well known golfers and media personalities associated with this event,” says Pru Etcheverry, the LBF Executive Director. “It is going to be an exciting day,” she adds.

The event organisers hope to confirm some Black Sticks players over the coming weeks along with other celebrity players that they have approached.

The golfers hope to drive home the message about the vital need for support to patients and their families living with leukaemia and related blood conditions.

Their target is to raise $100,000 for the LBF’s Support Services programme which provides regular visits and contact, education sessions and an online information forum for patients and their families living with leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma and related blood conditions.

Etcheverry says, “The LBF is a national organisation dedicated to supporting patients and their families living with blood cancers and conditions. In these challenging economic times these families need our support more than ever.”

The event will take place at the Aviation Country Club eighteen hole, 5,907-metre golf course. The course is set in lovely tree-lined surrounds just off Tom Pearce Drive, said to be ‘a sand wedge’ from the Harbour and close to the Auckland Airport. The course is contoured and easy to walk with sculptured tree-lines but open fairways along with some creative bunkering. It is a fantastic venue for an event of this type.

Golfers and supporters of the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation can support the event in three ways. To register as a player, sponsor a player or become a sponsor of a hole or a targeted area of the event. The event is being managed by golf event and tournament directors, PaR nz

About the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation
The Leukaemia & Blood Foundation (LBF) is a national organisation dedicated to helping patients and their families living with leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma and related blood conditions.

Every day six New Zealand children and adults are diagnosed with leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma or a related blood condition, the equivalent of around 2,200 New Zealanders a year.

These diseases can strike anyone, of any age, at any time, without warning. Immediate treatment may be necessary and that treatment can go on for months, or even years, having a huge impact on the patients, their families, their friends and their income.

The LBF receives no government funding and relies on public donations, sponsorships and grants, as well as funds raised through events and fundraisers such as the Golf Marrowthon 100 Hole Challenge.

The LBF is committed to improving the quality of life for patients and their families living with these blood cancers and conditions by providing patient support services, research, information, awareness and advocacy.

Funds raised from the Golf Marrowthon will go to the LBF’s Patient Support Services, providing personalised and practical programmes for people diagnosed with these blood conditions, assessed on an individual needs basis, including:
• Personalised regular visits, phone or email contact,
• Face-to-face education and support programmes,
• An online information forum (www.lifebloodlive.org.nz) and
• A toll free number for advice, empathy and support.

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