Reid Gibson makes giant bubbles at a Cystic Fibrosis Otago awareness raising event in Dunedin's Anzac Square on Saturday. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

Big bubbles bobbed in Dunedin to signal the start of Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Week today.

Cystic Fibrosis Otago chairman Julian Cox said the giant bubbles outside Dunedin Railway Station on Saturday morning symbolised how a person with the disease struggled to blow a bubble because their lung function had deteriorated.

The awareness week includes a street appeal in Otago on Friday and Saturday.

The money raised was ''very important'' as it bought nebuliser units, worth about $1200 each, so medicine could be administered to the lungs of people with the inherited disease.

The money also provided heating grants for people with the disease.

Otago residents had given generously to the street appeal in past years, he said.

''In terms of regions we punch well above our weight, which is great and we hope to do so again this year.''

-shawn.mcavinue@odt.co.nz