Kerre Woodham: Event to lift spirit

Every now and then we need to be reminded of just how good people are. There's no news in goodness and I don't really know why. It's easy to behave badly. It's so much harder and more interesting to resist temptation.

Our media supply a diet of vileness and venality and nastiness with the occasional good-news story.

This is my good-news story. Last week I took part in a charity debate and auction to raise funds for a young father's cancer treatment.

The event was a sit-down dinner for 350. All the food and wine had been donated by local businesses and the waiting staff were recruits from the police college who'd donated their time.

It was wonderful to be part of such a fantastic community event.

The money raised will buy this dad more time with his boys.

So often when someone you love is diagnosed with the big C, you feel powerless. But this was the Kapiti Coast sticking two fingers to the disease. It was a wonderful example of a community working together and there will be plenty more cases like this around the country.

There are far more good people than bad, and sometimes we just need to remember that.