Ray White has raised $16,113.00 for the Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand (LBC) in the annual Auckland Step Up Sky Tower Stair Challenge, which was held on Friday, 5 August.
The Sky Tower, which is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, hosted nearly 500 people climbing up 51 floors, 1,103 stairs. Ray White entered four teams, consisting of twenty Ray White employees, including:
Ray White New Zealand – Carey Smith, Wayne Maguire, John Tanner, Tarryn Van Dyk, Larissa Dyke
Ray White Birkenhead – Stephen Wong, Nicky Hattam, Linda Wong, Roy Dong, Wade Norgrove
Ray White North Shore – Stephen Burnett, Louis Henry, Fiona Gao, Andy Yang, Isabel Xu
Ray White Pinehill – Jimmy Wu, Iris Chen, Jenny Shi, Brian Zhang, Brad Chen
Ray White New Zealand Chief Executive, Carey Smith, leapt up the stairs in a personal best time of 14 minutes and 57 seconds and raised $6,691 alone for LBC. “I must admit that each year gets a little harder and the final flights are very challenging. But everyone has their challenges and this is one I look forward to each year on behalf of those who really struggle and have a daily challenge just to get through each and every day.” Smith said.
Ray White NZ team of Smith, Tanner and Maguire have participated for the fourth year in a row, Smith said, “We do this every year because it is important to us to support the community and assist those less fortunate. The LBC does not receive any government funding so we feel committed to help the charity grow their services and enabling them to support patients and their families across the country.”
The Step Up Sky Tower Stair Challenge in total raised a record $408,000. Smith was the second highest individual on the fundraising leaderboard and the Ray White NZ team was six on the leaderboard raising $8,238.
Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand is a national organisation dedicated to supporting patients and their families living with a blood cancer – leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma or a related blood condition.
With six Kiwis being diagnosed with a blood cancer or related condition every day and receiving no government funding, the Step Up Sky Tower Stair Challenge event is crucial to helping raise funds and awareness to continue the service.
The results of the team and individual fundraising can be seen here