The impact of your support
Starship is the only children’s hospital in Aotearoa, the leading provider of paediatric health care. The Starship promise is to deliver family-centred care to infants, children, young people and their whānau - in hospital and in the community.
As a fundraiser, you're helping to keep that promise. And that means the world.
Starship National Air Ambulance
When children’s lives are on the line, there’s only one specialist Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in all of New Zealand. And only one Starship National Air Ambulance Service to get them there.
The service is a vital lifeline connecting children and families from across Aotearoa New Zealand with Starship, our national children’s hospital.
You made an incredible impact last year
172%
The Starship (PICU) flight team carried out 172 retrievals from July 2024 to Jun 2025.
300,000
kms
The team travelled over 300,000 kilometres from Kaitaia to Invercargill, bringing children from across Aotearoa New Zealand back to Starship for urgent medical care.
51 hrs
Last year, the Starship Air Ambulance Service flew every 51 hours, on average, to retrieve critically ill or injured children from across the country.
Arlo’s Starship story
On Arlo’s first birthday, he wasn’t celebrating with cake and his family, he was fighting for his life onboard an emergency Starship Air Ambulance flight from Christchurch to Auckland.
A simple tummy bug had quickly turned into a rare, life-threatening condition that caused Arlo’s kidneys to fail. But thanks to the Air Ambulance and the incredible team waiting for him at Starship Hospital, Arlo got the specialist care he needed, just in time.
Today, he’s a happy, energetic five-year-old who loves dressing up as Spiderman – showing no signs of how sick he once was.
