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Sir Ray Avery asking for public's forgiveness, promises LifePod incubators are on their way

Donors to Sir Ray’s charity are upset the incubators have not been delivered to the Pacific.

Donors to Sir Ray Avery’s charity are upset that the LifePod incubators they thought they had funded have not been delivered to the Pacific.

Sir Ray is now asking for the public's forgiveness and has promised they're finally on the way.

Three years ago, donor Clive Beacham gave $10,000 to the project to fund four of the LifePods. He expresses disappointment towards the issue, saying "I do think he has let us down and possibly others".

Schools around the country have gotten on board with the charity's project too.

In Timaru Bluestone Primary School raised $2,000 through mufti days and sausage sizzles for one the promised LifePods.

"We could opt where it went and we opted for the Pacific," says Bluestone Primary’s principal Ian Poulter.

"I think the children now will start to wonder just what they can believe, so disappointing all round for our parents and the students who raised that."

Three years ago Sir Ray said the LifePods would be saving babies' lives in the Pacific from January 2016.

"In Fiji it will help save the lives of little kids and maybe one of those kids will grow up to be a mini me and go on and change the world," Sir Ray said in an earlier statement.

He made a commitment to Fiji in 2016 to deliver 50 starting in February this year, but there are still no LifePods in the Pacific.

Sir Ray is now apologising if he created the impression that the LifePods would actually be deployed.

He says he should have been clearer the money was being spent developing and testing technology.

"Maybe we hadn't explained that whole process to people and I apologise for that if they misinterpreted what we were trying to do."

"We have missed deadlines and the only defence against that is we're an organisation that only has a bookkeeper so we have to rely on people donating their time and services to get things across the line," he says.

Sir Ray has also clarified the claim that the LifePods will save one million lives.

"It wasn't rubbish numbers, it was still rubbery but it's still possible."

He has since set a new deadline in February, promising they’re really on the way.

"We've handed over the keys to the company in India," he says.

"That would be great if I could get an assurance that actually was the case," says Beacham.

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