They’re some of Canberra’s smallest people, and often, they need a large amount of help.
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Now Canberrans can help provide support support to premature babies at the Canberra Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit by rolling up their sleeves and baking.
Running throughout July and August, the Bake for Babies fundraiser is seeking to raise money for the Newborn Intensive Care Foundation.
The foundation’s chair Peter Cursley said the idea for the event came from a fundraiser held by a similar organisation in the UK.
“Baking has had a rejuvenation in popularity in the UK, and it’s a bit like that over here in Australia with all the food shows and it’s starting to become more popular,” he said.
As part of the fundraiser, Mr Cursley said people can bake whatever food they like, from scones to cakes or biscuits, and then sell it.
This is the first large-scale fundraising event for the organisation, and its chair said they are hoping to raise more than $85,000 during that time.
“That's the amount of money that we need to purchase a twin transporter humidicrib, which enables us to transport two premature babies from one hospital to another,” Mr Cursley said.
Canberra Hospital is the only hospital in the ACT as well as southern NSW that has a neo-natal unit, meaning many premature babies have to be transported from several hundred kilometres away to receive treatment.
It’s hoped that the new twin transporter will allow for more babies to been transferred safely between hospitals.
Mr Cursley set up the Canberra-based organisation in 1995 after his own child was born prematurely and needed additional support.
“While our baby didn’t survive, I was so in awe of the support from the hospital staff and I wanted to be able to give something back,” he said.
“With the amount of equipment that we’ve been able to purchase over the years, in many ways, the Canberra unit is leading the nation.”
More than 1700 babies go through the neo-natal unit at the hospital every year, with more than a third coming from regional areas.
Mr Cursley said he hopes for as many Canberrans as possible to put their baking skills on show.
"We just want as many as we possibly can,” he said.
For more information or to find out more: newborn.org.au/bakeforbabies