Stars to Sea 84km Ultra Marathon for Starship Children’s Hospital.

We are a team of 5 regular Lads who have created Whanganui's longest Ultra Marathon to help raise funds for the Starship Foundation. Seasoned runners by no means this is a challenge that will push us to our limits. Called the Stars to Sea 84Km Ultra Marathon, we have teamed up with Starship Children's Hospital and all money raised will go to their incredible foundation. We will tackle this challenge head-on with the aim of running the Whanganui river road from Pipiriki to the North Mole Whanganui in June.

Some of us have had personal experience facing the reality of our own children requiring Starships services, the why we need to do this is a question with an easy answer. We plan to share many updates throughout the next 19 weeks leading up to event day, so I hope you enjoy our stories and share them with as many people as possible.

Starship is New Zealand’s national children’s hospital, it provides life-saving care for children from all over New Zealand. There are more than 140,000 patient visits to Starship Child Health each year and the team of nurses and clinicians that work there are extremely empathetic, skilled and knowledgeable. This vital service is needed by families around the country and relies on the support of everyday New Zealanders.

Starship has New Zealand’s only dedicated paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) caring for critically ill children from across the country. An expansion plan is set to get underway later this year starting with the addition of ten new intensive care beds before winter 2022, lifting capacity by 45%. Additional whānau and staff support spaces, and a new medical day stay unit are also part of the redevelopment project which will roll out over two to three years.

Please help us raise money to support the brilliant team at Starship, all proceeds will benefit Starship Child Health.