Gearing Up For Radiothon!

Hi!

You may notice I'm not on the air on CKOC today or tomorrow - and that Ted Yates is capably handling the continuance of our Big 1150 Countdown, the biggest countdown ever, as we now head into our Top 500.

The reason I'm not there is because we are all, in our respective positions (one of mine being Music Director for sister station, 820 CHAM), getting ready for our annual Radiothon for McMaster Children's Hospital. I think it's my favourite part of being a radio announcer - or at least of being someone who has the opporunity to reach out to people - and let them know about what we have here in our region - or, as I like to say, in our own backyard.

McMaster Children's Hospital is one of the most amazing hospitals in the world. They have an incredible staff, led by brilliant and passionate men and women, and they helped my wife bring our beautiful little twin babies safely into the world. My wife, Janne, was at risk of giving premature delivery of Liam and Morgan at Week 28 of her pregnancy, but with the help of McMaster's staff, and a lot of bedrest, she managed to stay the course in the Maternity Ward for 5 weeks, and our babies were then delivered by the Chief Of Obstetrics and the Chief Resident at the beginning of Week 33. Liam and Morgan were small, but far from the smallest babies to be brought into the world at Mac Kids' Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Morgan needed some respiratory help at first, but the two of them only needed 60 hours at Level 3 in Mac's NICU before they could be transferred to St. Joe's, where they spent the next month at Level 2 care from some fanatastic nurses (who we spent Christmas with that year), before the two of them were finally ready to come home with us.

...And, to quote our great family doctor, Dr. Holmes, at the twins' two-year check-up, they are now "healthy and thriving", in no small part to the great start they got from the care we ALL received bringing them safely into the world from Mac Kids.

We still, when we have time (because it's busy when you have twins), get in touch with out Primary Care Nurse at Mac, Louanne, who looked after them in those first critical hours. She was our rock, and we'll never forget her.

Sooooo...Please listen closely to the stories from the parents and children that you'll hear here on Oldies 1150 CKOC, and - if you so desire - check out the stories on our sister stations, 102.9 K-Lite FM, and 820 CHAM as well. All three of our stations in Astral Media Radio's Hamilton group will be there again this year, because of the way this hospital has touched all of our lives, and to gather even more support for the amazing things they will continue to do, and bigger things they plan to do at Mac Kids in the future. They're always reaching further, and trying to achieve more. They're fantastic.

By the way, you can see my blog about our babies, Liam and Morgan, here.

Take a look through some of the Archives on that blog on the right-hand side, to see where we came from with the twins to where we are now.

Hope you'll be joining us to support Mac Kids on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, March 3rd, 4th and 5th.