{"id":484306,"date":"2026-06-18T21:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/484306\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T21:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:21:10","slug":"kaikohe-boys-miracle-recovery-sparks-baking-fundraiser-for-starship-hospital-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/484306\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaikohe boy\u2019s miracle recovery sparks baking fundraiser for Starship Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

His mum Kyla sat at his bedside for months while her son fought to survive<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe surgeon told us he had about a 30% chance of survival … they weren\u2019t convinced he was going to come out of it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he did wake up [in January] the expectation was that it would be 12 months before he could talk or walk again.\u201d <\/p>\n

Incredibly, Legacy started talking the same day he regained consciousness. <\/p>\n

\u201cNobody could believe it,\u201d Kyla said. <\/p>\n

While Legacy has no memory of what happened between October and January, he has exceeded doctors\u2019 expectations by regaining his ability to do most things within a couple of months. <\/p>\n

He discovered a love of baking when he moved to the Wilson rehab centre to work on his ataxia [lack of voluntary muscle coordination] in his right hand. <\/p>\n

So far, he\u2019s made red velvet cupcakes for Kyla\u2019s birthday, along with vanilla cupcakes for his nana, chocolate chip cookies, donut bites, kinder brownies and scones. <\/p>\n

His baking is going so well, he\u2019s signed up for Starship\u2019s<\/a> Big Bake Off fundraiser, a month-long community baking challenge held every June to raise funds for New Zealand\u2019s national children\u2019s hospital. <\/p>\n

Participants bake and share treats while collecting donations from friends, family, and colleagues to support life-saving care and research for sick children. <\/p>\n

To date, he\u2019s raised $200 of his $1000 goal. <\/p>\n

Joining the fundraiser is a way of thanking the people who cared for Legacy during the hardest months of the family\u2019s lives, Kyla said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe nurses, the surgeons, everybody genuinely cared; the support and love they have for families is incredible. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be where we are today without Starship – Legacy is here because of them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Though Legacy has regular scans and check-ups at Starship and still experiences fatigue and balance issues, he is walking, talking, eating well and going on lots of adventures. <\/p>\n

His first holiday was in Auckland recently, where he ate \u201call his favourite foods\u201d like Korean barbecue and tacos. <\/p>\n

He is also attending Te Kura correspondence school and Northern Health School. <\/p>\n

To support Legacy\u2019s mission, visit www.starshipbigbakeoff.org.nz\/legacy-haenga. <\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His mum Kyla sat at his bedside for months while her son fought to survive. \u201cThe surgeon told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1863,22140,117024,1848,1596,89438,135098,1342,2082,40371,14154,2241,30616,15399,33321,3234,111,43,139,1067,69,1881,8207,12633,5147,673,31145],"class_list":["post-484306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-back","tag-baking","tag-bleed","tag-boys","tag-brain","tag-brave","tag-carers","tag-five","tag-for","tag-fundraiser","tag-give","tag-hospital","tag-kaikohe","tag-massive","tag-miracle","tag-months","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-recovery","tag-sparks","tag-spent","tag-starship","tag-storm","tag-suffered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}