Ashburton College teacher Claire Bubb (left) hands over the cheque for $10,000 to Andre van Rooyen (centre) and his wife Debbie (right) which was raised through a fundraising concert held at the college to pay for van Rooyen’s rare cancer treatment. Photo Jaime Pitt-MacKayA fundraising concert of former and current Ashburton College students for Andre van Rooyen on Friday night raised $10,000.

The concert, which was organised by teacher Claire Bubb, was held at the Ashburton College auditorium and saw current and former students come together to perform a variety of songs for the former Mid Canterbury tennis coach who is battling a rare form of lung cancer.

“It is an evening that I will remember for the rest of my life,” he said.

“To be able to share it with my kids and family was amazing.

“To see so many of the tennis community and the wider community there supporting it was fantastic.”

Van Rooyen is in his sixth month of fighting the cancer and requires Crizotinib, a drug which costs $10,000-per-month, to fight it.

The drug has had a positive impact on van Rooyen’s quality of life, and his wife Debbie said you can see day-to-day the improvements that he is making.

“It is nice to be able to have quality time with my family,” he said.

One side-effect of the drug is joint pain, but being outside and active with the family dog is helping to combat that.

The evening was MC’ed by deputy principal Ron Creswell, who also took part by singing alongside a line-up of top vocalists including Jack Bubb, who is studying music at Ara, teacher and NASDA graduate Jack Hanrahan, NASDA graduate Libby Higson, Otago University student Lucy Clough, well-known local singer Luke Glendining, and award-winning country music artist Ocean Waitokia.

Dancers included Hannah Wakelin and Carl Cayanan, while there were also bands and drama acts.

By Jaime Pitt-MacKay © The Ashburton Guardian - 6 December 2019