Nancy "Nan" Raine, 83 with her red Jaguar full of presents

About 4 months ago this great granny drove from Tauranga to Christchurch with a car load of food and $1600.00 given to her by the Church of Christ to help those affected by the earthquake. The Police, Plunket and Burwood hosital helped her get to the most urgent cases and were an enormous help.

On arrival in Christchurch she distributed what she had in her car then went out daily for 2 weeks shopping for food then delivered to the most needy she was able to find. This time Nan decided to make Xmas a little better for the children of families, and drove down with over 200 parcels to be handed out to children just to brighten Xmas a little. As an 83 year old with 5 children, 11 grandchildren and 13 greatgrandchildren she is well aware how children look forward to the fun of parcel opening and even small objects are sometimes treasures to the little ones. This spurted her on and she received help and support from many friends and shopkeepers for which she is grateful.

Once again she says thankyou to all who supported her efforts and without whom she would have had to work a lot harder. And a big thankyou to Bluebridge who supported her on both occasions.

"Helping one another is what life is all about. How easy it can be just to sit in a chair and do nothing but I am fit and have been blessed with good health and the ability to still drive my large car so I enjoy doing so and mostly enjoy seeing the childrens' faces light up when they learn that I've travelled such a long distance just to be with them and bring with me the love of others throughout New Zealand who are still thinking about what the people of Christchurch are going through."