A cheque for more than $26,000 was today presented to the children's ward to help sick kids receive the best care possible at Bundaberg Hospital.
Manager of Bundaberg Health Services Foundation Anne McWhirter said it was all thanks to community fundraising efforts led by the team at Triple M during the month of June for the Give Me 5 for Kids campaign.
“It's an amazing contribution which is going towards purchasing a really large piece of equipment,” Anne said.
“It's called the Giraffe Incubator Care Station which is a modern and tech-savvy humidicrib for babies.
“This machine has sides that come up so that people can get closer to the baby and also has all of the monitoring systems attached so the don't baby doesn't have to be moved unnecessarily for testing.”
Community support for Triple M's campaign
Triple M radio hosts Nik Stuart and Amber Wheatland were the duo responsible for getting the community together for the fundraising initiative, hosting a range of events and activities for the cause.
“We love getting behind the community so for us, our campaign for Give Me 5 For Kids was a really big way to support the local children's ward,” he said.
“This year we did a week of outdoor broadcasts, hit the streets and got around Bundaberg.”
The duo performed all sorts of entertaining dares to help raise money including Amber being dunked in an ice bath and eating a spider, which raised $6,000 in total.
“I got my name tattooed to my foot which raised about $5000,” Nik said.
“We are very fortunate that we have always had support from our local communities growing up so we understand how important this is for the families of this region.
Amber said being part of the Give Me 5 for Kids campaign had given the team the opportunity to find out more about the local families doing it tough.
“We did this because we don't want local families to have to travel to Brisbane for treatment,” she said.
“It was also a really good opportunity for us to celebrate the doctors and nurses and the families of the kids that are in the Bundaberg Hospital as well.
“We had the honour of getting a tour of the children's ward where we met some of the families, we got to see first hand where the money raised by the Bundaberg community was going.”
The duo said while they got to hand over the cheque to Bundaberg Hospital, the fundraising efforts were all thanks to the Bundaberg Region residents and businesses who supported the cause.
“It's all about the local businesses and community members who contributed,” Nik said.
“From everyone involved in the #lovebundy campaign and Ace Fabrications who all did a lot for us.”
Sadly it was one of Amber's last community appearances in Bundaberg. The popular radio personality is returning to live in Victoria.
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