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Kawerau can lady, 81, does her bit for Cancer Society - one can at a time

August 28, 2019

Kay Dodunski's good work follows in the footsteps of her husband Ray, who died three years ago.

It's the Cancer Society's annual Daffodil Day fundraiser on Friday, but an 81-year-old Kawerau woman has been doing her bit, one can at a time, three days a week for several years.

Seven Sharp caught up with pensioner Kay Dodunski riding her scooter round the streets of the Bay of Plenty town in search of recyclable cans to raise money for the Cancer Society. 

"I call it scavenging, and all I want is the aluminium cans," Kay said.

Sporting a daffodil in her hat, Kay finds cans people have put out on the street for recycling and fills rubbish bags with them. 

"Just the satisfaction of doing something useful. You can't just curl up and do nothing because you are getting a bit older."

Kay's scooter is not a medical necessity but makes for easier access to her booty and then to haul it home.

She took over the reigns from her husband Ray, who died from heart complications three years ago.

Between the two of them, they've raised $6000 for the Cancer Society over the last five years, at the going scrap rate of 80 cents a kilo of cans.

"The year Ray died, his goal was to get to $2000. And I did in the end. He died in the June and by December I had $2000," Kay said.

Kay sorts the cans at home and loads them into her car, driving to a scrap metal dealer.

Her latest load weighed in at 56 kilos, which equated to 3024 cans - a lot to pick up one by one.

"This time round you get $45 for all your hard efforts, which is good," the scrap metal dealer told Kay.

"That's good," Kay agreed.

So how long can she keep on doing "the can-can" for?

"As long as my body lets me. I'm hoping for another 10 years. I am in no hurry to give it up," the kind-hearted Kawerau Can Lady replied.

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