Survivor Sunday - 26 September 2021 - CANCELLED

Please note:  Due to Covid19 restrictions, this event has been cancelled.

It is Burn Support Group's hope that the Xmas Survivor Sunday will go ahead at the end of this year.

Survivor Sunday - 27 June 2021

Burn Support Group would like to extend a sincere thank you to the wonderful, informative and interesting guest speakers that attended this event.

Beginning with Ben and Koal from One Up Rehab, these guys share their passion and knowledge on what can only be described as a positive new product to the market.  Since meeting with the lads at Women's Retreat they have made numerous contacts who are as impressed as we have been with results.

Following a lovely lunch supplied by the team at BBYC we were captivated by research fellow, Vaughan Feistt.

With a wealth of knowledge and incredible hard work behind the scenes, Vaughan has been researching skin at Auckland University, the discoveries will be instrutmental for the burn survivors in the future. 
 
Thank you to all those that attended, it is always a pleasure to catch up with the familiar faces and see the warm and welcoming embrace to newcomers.

A special mention to Kelsey Waghorn and her lovely mum, Shelley, it is wonderful you have met some of the lovely ladies that will be at the next year Retreat with you.

Next Retreat date is 26 September 2021 - keep an eye out for upcoming details.    

Click image to enlarge

"My research is focussed on growing skin grafts in the laboratory and the idea is to use them to treat patients with large burn wounds.

As you know, large burn wounds often require multiple rounds of skin grafting to completely cover all of the burn wounds.

Our goal is to take a small sample of healthy skin from the patient when they are admitted to hospital, then use that sample to grow skin cells in the laboratory and turn them into skin grafts. 

By using skin grafts grown in the laboratory to cover patient burn wounds we hope that the time to complete burn wound coverage is reduced, reducing the number of rounds of skin grafting required and reducing the time spent in hospital.

By using skin cells isolated from a sample of the patient's own skin the skin grafts that we grow won’t be rejected, providing a permanent wound solution. 

Over the last few years we have been improving the process of isolating and growing skin cells so that we can do this as fast as possible.

At the moment we are working on scaling up our process for growing skin grafts in the laboratory, we want to be able to grow multiple 20 cm x 20 cm skin grafts.

Once we can do that our plan is to start clinical trials, putting laboratory grown skin grafts onto patients, to make sure its safe and going to provide a benefit for the patient."

- Vaughan Feistt

Survivor Sunday - 28 March 2021

Thank you to all those that attended the first Survivor Sunday for 2021.

A good day was had by all with a BBQ lunch, fabulous raffle, coffee truck and swimming available.

t is always a pleasure to meet new faces and watch relationships build with those attending.

A great catch up for those children who attended Camp in January.... thank you for the amazing support on the day.

Survivor Sundays are a valuable opportunity to meet others, share coping skills and understand "YOU ARE NOT ALONE."
 
A very special thank you to Macleans Primary, Principle Matthew Cooke was more than supportive to give us access to the school pool area which proved a winner on the day... 
 
Thank you to Chrissie Menzies for coming along providing good coffee from her coffee truck, Coffeesmith... this support is extremely generous and truly appreciated.