Why can't our early-stage HER2+ women get the treatment they need?

Back in October 2007 skyjump Auckland very generously donated a sky jump to Maxine for her sponsorship. However, at the eleventh hour, we were advised that skyjump would NOT remain open for the time the Herceptin Riders were scheduled to arrive in Auckland as originally planned. They apparently close at 5.15pm, which "Steve" told us was in no way negotiable, and that put us all under too much presure to try and get there in time. We were informed by Steve that because the jump was donated, and the person who set it up last October is not now there, and Steve himself "knew nothing about it" he was simply not willing to retain the necessary staff until we could get there. Nor was he willing to offer an earlier jump on Saturday morning than 10.30am, by which time the Riders were scheduled to be on their way south again.

We made an active choice to avoid severe pressure and/or disruption to a great many people that trying to fit in with skyjumps rigid times would have caused so, regrettably for all concerned, and for the Herceptin cause in particular, that very significant part of our overall event just did not happen. The end result was that TVNZ contacted us after they shot the interview and the footage of us all arriving at the Sky Tower to meet the BCAC, to advise that without the jump happening, our arrival could not be deemed newsworthy enough to broadcast on TV1's late news as planned. This was an incredible shame for the Herceptin cause.

It was crushingly disappointing for everyone who was looking forward to it happening as one of the highlights of our week, and for all those who sponsored Max up front to do it. Max herself was gutted that it wasn't going to happen, after many months of psyching herself up for it. The jump is now being donated to Susan' Marshall's Herceptin Fundraising Auction, which is due to take place in late June in Christchurch. Hopefully someone will bid a worthy amount to have that awesome experience, and Susan will get the benefit from that.

Huge apologies to all sponsors who have paid up front for Max to do the Sky Jump. Sponsors who would like to have their $20 refunded can email Max directly through the link on this website, and she will either arrange refunds with them directly, or offer a Herceptin Riders' Supporters t-shirt, as an alternative option.

Sky City, on the other hand, who are quite separate from skyjump, were very different towards us. They were absolute stars! The Management went out of their way to make us welcome, with complimentary hot chocolate and permission to park our motorcycles right in front of the entry way, and they even went so far as to give the riders passes to the very top level of the Sky Tower, which did go along way to restore morale, which had taken a real battering after skyjump's total refusal to fulfil their original promise to us.

Thank you, Sky City, for giving us such a warm welcome, and so openly supporting what we were trying to do.

The fact that skyjump actively chose to throw away what was arguably one of the biggest free advertising opportunities they could possibly have got this year, is of no consequence to the Herceptin Riders who had tried to offer that unique opportunity to them by way of thanks for their initial gesture of donating their resource. We moved on to providing similar opportunities to people whose support actually was of real help us.