Radiothon to help cot death appeal

Press, 13 May 1989, Page 3

Radiothon to help cot death appeal

By NIGEL MALTHUS A marquee near Victoria Lake in North Hagley Park will be the centre for tomorrow’s 3ZB’s Radiothon, to raise funds for the Cot Death Fellowship Appeal. People will be encouraged to bring donations to the marquee, where there will be bands playing, and other fundraising activities such as professional photographers taking $lO photographs of “Mum and the family” for Mother’s Day.

A group of motor-racing enthusiasts will support the appeal with a “Wheels for Radiothon” event at Ruapuna, featuring many different types of motorsport.

Local celebrities will staff the microphones at the 3ZB studio, reading pledges and talking about cot death.

The toll-free telephone number for pledges will be (03) 665-376.

The 3ZB breakfast announcer, Barry Corbett, said an unusual feature would be the participation of the breakfast announcers of all Christchurch’s competing commercial stations.

The Radiothon will run from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., broadcast on both 3ZB and 3ZE Ashburton. Radio Caroline in Timaru will run its own simultaneous Radiothon for the same cause.

The chairman of the Cot Death Fellowship Appeal, Mr George Begg, said about $280,000 had been raised since the appeal was launched on Mother’s Day last year.

The original target of $400,000 had been increased to $500,000 to compensate for the lower interest rates and therefore: the lower rate of return on the money, he said. Information from Canterbury’s community pediatrician, Dr Rodney Ford, who is on study leave overseas, showed that Canterbury was going to have to tackle the cot death problems itself, said Mr Begg. : “Dr Ford says it has become more obvious that it can’t be left to the United Kingdom to solve the Christchurch cot death problem because there is no feeling of urgency to tackle the problem there.”