This year, the Melbourne-based Chain Reaction Challenge will be setting off to conquer a 1,000km course across the North Island of New Zealand, cycling to raise funds for the Monash Children’s Hospital and Starlight Foundation.
Dr Rob Roseby, Dr Cathy McAdam, Dr Sabine Hennel and Professor Nick Freezer will ride alongside Olympic champion Grace Brown, raising funds to purchase new state-of-the-art ventilators for Monash Children’s Hospital.
At Monash Children’s Hospital hundreds of babies and children require ventilators to help them breathe across three of our largest departments, our Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), our Paediatric Sleep Centre and our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
This vital equipment will provide critically unwell patients with the breath of life and support them to get home sooner, where they belong.
This is Sophia’s story:
8-month-old Sophia relies on a ventilator for up to 24 hours a day, every day, to support her breathing and keep her well.
Living with her rare genetic disorder, Congenital Myasthenic Syndrome (CMS), she has required the life-saving support of a suite of ventilators since she was born, spending most of her life so far in the care of Monash Children’s Hospital.
Monash Children’s Hospital’s PICU, Sleep Centre and NICU require 11 ventilators in total, across the departments, to support the care of our young patients. Each state-of-the-art ventilator costs between $50,000 and $60,000.
To find out more about the Chain Reaction Challenge and to make a donation, please visit: https://www.chain-reaction.org.au/fundraisers/monashchildrenshospital
