Royalty comes to town for launch of new trust

Royalty came to town today for the launch of a new trust to help find a cure for spinal cord injuries.

Zara Phillips, the daughter of Princess Anne and granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth 2, is the patron of Catwalk, a trust being established by former international equestrian, Catriona Williams.

Mrs Williams has been confined to a wheelchair since 2002 when she became a tetraplegic after a cross-country fall in Hamilton. She set up the trust to help find a cure for spinal cord injuries.

Today she and Ms Phillips were at Government House in Auckland where the trust and its fund raising programme were formally launched by Mrs Williams, Ms Phillips and Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright.

As well as Ms Phillips as patron, the Catwalk trust has four New Zealand patrons -- All Blacks great Sir Brian Lochore, former world superbike racer Aaron Slight, former Black Caps cricketer and now a selector Dion Nash and former champion jockey Lance O'Sullivan.

Today's Government House launch will be followed tonight by a black tie dinner in Auckland and a fund-raising auction.

Mrs Williams has said in the past only legs that worked would make her life better.

"I want to do things not have things," she said.

- NZPA