Heart Children

Canterbury Branch

Greetings from the Canterbury Area

The Canterbury Branch covers Canterbury and the West Coast as well as the northern part of the South Island.

Number of Families Supported:  310

The Canterbury branch is well established with support being provided from about 1991.  We are a big branch with over 300 families.  Many are in the Canterbury area but we also have families in most parts of the north of the South Island.  We provide a variety of services and try to meet everyone’s needs.  Our main service is information and support through our family support workers, especially when your child needs to go up to Starship.  We also provide a travel subsidy to enable an extra support person to go up to Starship with the parent and heart child.  We arrange special toiletry packs and gifts for children and try to help families in a variety of ways through this stressful time.

We hold monthly “Murmurs” coffee groups for our parents of babies and younger children, “Cardio-youth” events for our teenagers and heart children adults as well as family events for everyone.  These help you meet other heart kids and parents to help build communication and informal support networks.  We also hold Education Evenings on topics suggested by members.

Contact Judith, Karen, or Debbie if you would like any information on any of these activities or on any of our services.

Events & Dates