FNQ Hospital Foundation raises $20,000 in Arrow Experience fundraiser

More than 100 people have hiked Cairns’ Arrow trails this weekend to raise funds for a world-class surgical robot for the Cairns hospital. SEE THE PHOTOS.

114 walkers and runners have raised more than $20,000 for the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation in this year's BDO Arrow Experience, running and walking the arrow tracks on Mt Whitfield for charity.The proceeds from this year's event will help go towards the purchase of a new surgical robot for the Cairns Hospital. Kami Radrodro, Betty Tawake, Maureen Bolawaqatabu, Maika Qalulu and Kami Radrodro took on the long course together, walking the green, blue, red then yellow arrow tails in succession on Saturday morning. Picture: Brendan Radke

More than 100 people have hiked the Arrow trails in Cairns this weekend to raise funds for a world-class surgical robot for the Cairns hospital.

Around 115 hikers laced up their boots to do the Arrow Experience charity walk, run by the FNQ Hospital Foundation, to bring a DaNi robot to help ‘revolutionise’ surgical outcomes in the region.

FNQ Hospital Foundation fundraising manager Glenys Duncombe said bringing the state-of-the-art surgical equipment would be a significant boost for the region.

“Everyone needs good health, and anything we can do to help our health service, means that everyone will be eligible – if they need to have surgery, to have robotic surgery,” Ms Duncombe said.

“It’s what all the new doctors are trained on, so we’ll have state-of-the-art medical equipment available which will help to attract new, young doctors to move up to the Far North.”

Ms Duncombe said the event raised almost $20,000 for DaNi.

“I think the Arrow Experience (raised) under $20,000 now, taking our total to just under $2.7 million, but we’ve still money coming in,” Ms Duncombe said.

“It was a really good day … competitors went out from around 7am and we had lots of volunteers assisting on the day.”

Ms Duncombe said it was good to see a mix of locals and tourists taking part in the trail.

“There were about 115 (participants), some were competitors in the Masters Trail Run that (FNQ Hospital Foundation) also helped organise,” she said.

“I met two ladies from Dubbo who came up just to do the trial run.”

114 walkers and runners have raised more than $20,000 for the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation in this year's BDO Arrow Experience, running and walking the arrow tracks on Mt Whitfield for charity. The proceeds from this year's event will go towards the purchase of a new surgical robot for the Cairns Hospital. Trail running was including in this year's Arrow Experience for the first time, as part of the GBR Master's Games. Picture: Brendan Radke

114 walkers and runners have raised more than $20,000 for the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation in this year's BDO Arrow Experience, running and walking the arrow tracks on Mt Whitfield for charity. The proceeds from this year's event will go towards the purchase of a new surgical robot for the Cairns Hospital. Picture: Brendan Radke

114 walkers and runners have raised more than $20,000 for the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation in this year's BDO Arrow Experience, running and walking the arrow tracks on Mt Whitfield for charity. The proceeds from this year's event will go towards the purchase of a new surgical robot for the Cairns Hospital. Kami Radrodro, Maika Qalulu, Betty Tawake (obscured), Vanessa Tawake and Maureen Bolawaqatabu took on the long course together, walking the green, blue, red then yellow arrow tails in succession on Saturday morning. Picture: Brendan Radke

114 walkers and runners have raised more than $20,000 for the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation in this year's BDO Arrow Experience, running and walking the arrow tracks on Mt Whitfield for charity. The proceeds from this year's event will help go towards the purchase of a new surgical robot for the Cairns Hospital. Maureen Bolawaqatabu, Vanessa Tawake, Betty Tawake, Maika Qalulu and Kami Radrodro took on the long course together, walking the green, blue, red then yellow arrow tails in succession on Saturday morning. Picture: Brendan Radke

114 walkers and runners have raised more than $20,000 for the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation in this year's BDO Arrow Experience, running and walking the arrow tracks on Mt Whitfield for charity. The proceeds from this year's event will go towards the purchase of a new surgical robot for the Cairns Hospital. Kami Radrodro, Maika Qalulu, Betty Tawake (obscured), Vanessa Tawake and Maureen Bolawaqatabu took on the long course together, walking the green, blue, red then yellow arrow tails in succession on Saturday morning. Picture: Brendan Radke

114 walkers and runners have raised more than $20,000 for the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation in this year's BDO Arrow Experience, running and walking the arrow tracks on Mt Whitfield for charity. The proceeds from this year's event will help go towards the purchase of a new surgical robot for the Cairns Hospital. Vanessa Tawake, Kami Radrodro, Betty Tawake, Maika Qalulu, Maureen Bolawaqatabu and Una Kaloumaira, took on the long course together, walking the green, blue, red then yellow arrow tails in succession on Saturday morning. Picture: Brendan Radke

114 walkers and runners have raised more than $20,000 for the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation in this year's BDO Arrow Experience, running and walking the arrow tracks on Mt Whitfield for charity. The proceeds from this year's event will go towards the purchase of a new surgical robot for the Cairns Hospital. Trail running was including in this year's Arrow Experience for the first time, as part of the GBR Master's Games. Picture: Brendan Radke

Originally published as FNQ Hospital Foundation raises $20,000 in Arrow Experience fundraiser