A Dunedin artist who has spent many hours inside a computed
tomography (CT) scanner is one of those who has given work
for this weekend's CT scanner appeal auction in Wanaka.
Three simultaneous auctions and garage sales will be held
this Saturday, in Wanaka, Cromwell and Alexandra, with the
aim of raising $150,000 for the CT scanner suite at Dunstan
Hospital.
The painting of an Italian girl on a scooter, called Free
Spirit, is part of Waverley painter Lauren Bremner's music
and travel collection.
Like all her work since her first stroke in 2000, it isthe
product of her left hand.
Mrs Bremner had been a ticket-writer, signwriter and kitchen
designer.
But after her stroke, when she ''lost everything'', at the
age of 40, motor skill problems meant changing hands.
The mother of three grown sons, Mrs Bremner has had to
retrain herself to speak, and she continues to suffer more
minor strokes.
Unable to continue working as a commercial signwriter, Mrs
Bremner began taking art lessons and now has a dozenor so
paintings ready foran exhibition in Dunedin in July.
However, proceeds from the girl on the scooter - an
experiment with acrylic on hessian cloth rather than canvas -
will go towards the CT appeal.
Almost 50 paintings have been given for the art auction and
garage sale in Frederick St, Wanaka, on Saturday.
Paintings, along with kitchenware, gym equipment, barbecues,
furniture, toys and cars have been given in the other
centres, too.
Alexandra Rotary Club president Brian Fitzgerald said two new
cars, and one second-hand car, with ''generously conservative
reserves'', were among the big-ticket items for auction in
Alexandra.
New cars will also be offered in Cromwell and Wanaka.
He said people had been handing in items for about a month
but Rotary and Lions club members and been working ''pretty
much continuously'' from mid-December to organise and
advertise.
Friends of Dunstan Hospital and Dunstan Lions Club member
Mary Boyd said she was ''absolutely impressed'' with the
amount of stuff that had been given to the appeal.
She said the Central Otago community had always been behind
their hospital. It had raised money to buy all the equipment
at the hospital in Clyde.
The appeal was first mooted at a combined Rotary club meeting
last year. They then joined forces with the Lions clubs for
the first time to support the community fundraiser, Mr
Fitzgerald said.
Altering and fitting out the rooms of the scanner suite was
expected to cost about $250,000 and Friends of Dunstan
Hospital had already agreed to underwrite $150,000 of that.
Any extra money would go towards maintenance, Mrs Boyd said.
A $1 million grant from the Central Lakes Trust, announced in
November, enabled the hospital to purchase the scanner after
several years worth of lobbying.
Over the past year there was debate about the best location
for a scanner to serve the wider Central Otago and Queenstown
Lakes districts.
The Southern District Health Board decided in June to install
two scanners - one at Dunstan and one at Lakes District
Hospital in Frankton
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