A sporting legend for our first Club Otago of 2025

04/04/2025

Wow! What a privilege it was to hear White Ferns and Otago Sparks legend, Suzie Bates, speak at our first Club Otago event for 2025.

Warren McSkimming, ex-Otago Volt and now Commercial Manager at Otago Cricket, chatted to Suzie about her childhood and her incredible career right through the changes of sport moving from amateur to professional for women. Even with all the amazing stats Warren quoted from Suzie's career, Suzie said her career highlight was that incredible World Cup win in Dubai last year...it was a long time coming!

Before that interview, we heard from Dr Kate Thomas from the Dunedin School of Medicine. Kate gave an excellent overview of their research on the importance of exercise in brain health. This project was funded by the Aotearoa Gaming Trust in last year's OMRF Annual Grant round.

Attendees enjoyed a couple of hours of mingling and fantastic food in the stunning Long Room overlooking the University of Otago Cricket Oval. It was a truly special venue to hold this Club Otago event in.

Thank you to all our guests, we hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did! It is events like this that are vital to promote awareness of the breadth of medical research that the Foundation funds.

Thank you to Otago Cricket for sponsoring the amazing venue and to our raffle prize sponsors - Challenge Marketing Ltd, New World Gardens, Noisy Brewing Co. and Misha's Vineyard Wines. We also thoroughly recommend Julie at Gardens New World for your catering needs...the grazing platters were incredible. 

We wish Suzie all the best on her next adventure and look forward to seeing her and team next season.

To see all the photos taken at the event, check out our Facebook or LinkedIn pages.