Our Story

Kia ora koutou! Nga mihi maioha ki to mātou kōrero.

Cheekee Hero is a whānau-run charity. We celebrate, support and raise awareness of tamariki (children), rangatahi (youth) and their whānau (families) with different abilities. Our tagline CONNECT - AMPLIFY - CREATE CHANGE is our mission. We will connect families with different abilities; amplify children’s superpowers and create change by working collaboratively with charities and organisations, individuals and their families with neurodiversity, disability or illness to empower and champion each other.

We’re on a mission to change the narrative by creating our uniquely, entertaining and empathetic digital storybook series told through an indigenous lens, to inspire, heal others and pave the way for creatives of different abilities to share their experiences with each other and educate society.

Cheekee Hero Charity is the creation of Jasmine Soa, Māmā, Change-Maker advodate and Managing Director. The family’s lived experience of navigating through life with a child in treatment is the inspiration behind the need for helping whānau with similar experiences of tamariki and rangatahi with neurodiversity, disability and illness and to represent unheard voices to inspire change.

This is their story.

Donate online to Cheekee Hero, one of the best charities to donate to.

Tēnā koutou, talofa lava - We're a tight family of 5 with 3 awesome boys, Keenan, Myles, and Lachlan, and this is our story.

Lachlan, affectionately known as Lox was born in March 2016, and up until 10 months of age was healthy and full of life. Little did we know that his health and our lives would be set on a spiraling trajectory downwards and that our journey would evenutally blossom into something truly beautiful.

January 3rd, 2017, Lox's first and of many hospital admissions to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand and for what we would find out in 2018 was Bronchiectasis.

June 28th, 2019 Lox was diagnosed with T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia after 2 back to back admissions and where he would receive his first of many blood transfusions to come. A difficult moment in time that would prove to be a pivotal turning point.

Fast forward to the present day and Lox is thriving,there is his strength that we will forever be in awe of and his defiance to stand up and live life on his terms. We're a whānau with a lived experience of a child facing insurmountable odds and it's because of his jourey that we answered our call to courage and why we felt so compelled to help others.

Jazz, Paul, Keenan, Myles and Lox xx