Our local communities Funds

Donations to the Waikato Sick Babies Trust supports research work and staff training at the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Waikato Hospital.

The Waikato Sick Babies Trust was set up in 1983 by Dr Tony Cull and a group of supporters to help fund the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) he established at Waikato Hospital.

Trust Chair Jane Pope is a veteran Neonatal Nurse Practitioner in the NICU.

“I’ve seen huge progress in prem baby medicine. Now we can better support babies’ lungs and breathing, through antenatal steroids for lung maturity and surfactant for breathing. We support and monitor the brain growth and development and carefully look after their skin and nutrition, it has all progressed.

“It is a never-ending journey of learning. Now and then we think it might be all understood, but it doesn’t last long,” says Jane.

“In the early 1980s saving a 28-week baby was remarkable, now that’s standard, it is 23-24 weeks that’s the struggle,” says Dr Phil Weston, an early trustee.

The Neonatal Glucose Studies Team led by Distinguished Professor Dame Jane Harding of the University of Auckland, which won the Prime Ministers Science Prize in 2022, is just one example of a grant from the Waikato Sick Babies Trust going into key research.

The Waikato Sick Babies Trust Fund provides income that goes into the Trust’s grants for health research and the training of nurses and support staff.

We’ll send you a donation receipt so you can claim your tax credit.

If you encounter any challenges when donating, please contact us.