Last year Bathurst was selected as the first  country community authorised to raise funds for Westmead Hospital through its Radiothon, after Marian Clark rallied the community for support.

Through her efforts, and the city’s generosity $9750 was raised, and this year Mrs Clark is hoping to exceed the $10,000 mark.

Mrs Clark has always wanted to do something to help Westmead Children’s Hospital, her eight-year-old grandson Christopher suffers from a genetic disorder and his life revolves around visits to Westmead.

Her idea to involve the Bathurst community was born after a visit to the hospital last year.

“It was just a matter of opening a door. We were at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead waiting for Christopher to have an MRI and we were chatting to a young couple who had recently discovered their little boy had a genetic disorder and there was no definitive treatment available – their hope was that with ongoing research a cure or treatment would be discovered.

“We were walking back to our next appointment discussing the fact that we should get involved with fundraising for kids research when we passed a door that said ‘general inquiries’ On the spur of the moment we turned back, went in, subsequently we met the coordinator of the Radiothon who outlined the need for regional areas to come on board.”

As a result Bathurst became the first region to have an official Radiothon site at Stockland Bathurst at the same time as the 24-hour Radiothon was held at the children’s hospital.

She said the best part of the Radiothon is every dollar donated is matched dollar for dollar by corporate sponsors of the children’s hospital.

To help reach the fundraising goal raffle tickets are being sold at shops in the CBD as well as Bathurst’s Radiothon site, which will be located at Stocklands Bathurst from 9am – 9pm on Thursday, October 11 and from  9am – 6pm  Friday October 12. The raffle will be drawn at 7pm on Friday, October 12 at Stocklands.