Red Cross stories
Red Cross stories
Read our stories filled with humanity, resilience and the spirit of volunteering. They show how your support is helping vulnerable people in New Zealand and around the world.
17 June 2026
Six decades of service: Elaine’s Meals on Wheels journey
After nearly 60 years delivering Meals on Wheels, Elaine Utting, QSM, still isn’t ready to hang up the keys. The long-serving volunteer continues to deliver meals regularly in Auckland, driven by the same desire to help others that first inspired her to sign up in early 1967.
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15 June 2026
“Red Cross is a way of life”
With close to 50 years’ service between them, Trudy and Lindsay Taylor are unwavering pillars of New Zealand Red Cross in Whanganui.
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11 June 2026
More than meals: The 93-year-old still showing up for his community
Most people would call it a day at 93 years old after 30 years of service. Not Neil Hume. He’s still behind the wheel in West Auckland, still turning up for people on his New Zealand Red Cross Meals on Wheels route, and still finding purpose in every meal dropped at the door.
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2 June 2026
Celebrating 75 years of Meals on Wheels: Thousands of volunteers, countless connections
This month marks 75 years of the New Zealand Red Cross Meals on Wheels delivery service – a milestone that celebrates generations of volunteers who have delivered not only hot meals, but care and connection to communities across the country.
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25 May 2026
Supporting communities in Sri Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah
When Cyclone Ditwah battered Sri Lanka in late November 2025, it unleashed chaos - more than 3,000 landslides and rapid floods swamped 20 out of 25 districts, from tea-covered highlands to lowland rivers.
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