The lives of four young Tasmanians living with Type 1 diabetes will be forever changed thanks to the purchase of four insulin pumps by the Rotary Club of Youngtown.
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After raising more than $30,000 at the club’s inaugural Soggy Bottom Cardboard Box Boat Race in March, organisers were thrilled to help families who could not afford the insulin pumps themselves.
“It’s beyond our expectation, we were hoping that we would be able to raise money to buy one pump and we ended up being able to buy four,” said event organiser and Rotarian Sandy Astill.
“It blew us away, all of the support, and the ongoing support that we have continued to receive with people still donating to us.”
Ms Astill said the support for the event had been “phenomenal” with more than 30 cardboard boats created and 80 sailors taking to the water to raise funds.
The Rotary Club held a special thankyou event for its sponsors and volunteers on Saturday.
The club also took the opportunity to hand over one of the new pumps to two-year-old Justin Haywood from Burnie.
His mother Danielle Bosworth said it was “very special” to be given something that would have such a large impact on her young family and on Justin.
Due to the popularity and success of the event the Rotary Club of Youngtown also announced that it has decided to make the Soggy Bottom Race an annual day, to be held on Sunday, March 4 in 2018.