Over the past two years volunteers from the Sunshine Hospital Auxiliary have been working hard to fundraise an incredible $106,000.

The money has been used to purchase four much needed incubators for the Hospital's Special Care Nursery which looks after some of the West of Melbourne's smallest and most vulnerable babies.

The incubators will help babies in need of close observation and monitoring for a variety of reasons: those requiring phototherapy for jaundice; babies weighing under 2000g who cannot maintain their own body temperature; premature babies; and babies that require respiratory support.

At a morning tea on Thursday 18 August to acknowledge and thank the volunteers for their remarkable achievement, Western Health Chief Executive, Kathryn Cook expressed her gratitude to the volunteers.

"Western Health is enormously grateful for the fundraising efforts of these wonderful volunteers. As the population of the West continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, so too does the demand on our services. With the number of births at Sunshine Hospital increasing year on year, this donation will make all the difference in helping us care for the babies of the West," she said.

Western Health's Fundraising Manager, Kathryn Farrell, said that she hoped the volunteers' efforts would inspire the wider community to actively show support for their local Hospital.

"Every dollar we raise goes towards the expansion and improvement of Hospital services," Kathryn said.
"Hospitals rely on philanthropic support to supplement government funding and every donation, however big or small, has a positive impact on our ability to provide quality healthcare services to the community."

Sunshine Hospital is the third largest maternity site in Victoria, and has up to 800 babies being cared for in the Special Care Nursery each year. In early 2013 the Special Care Nursery is expected to relocate to a larger facility within the Acute Services Building at Sunshine Hospital.

Anyone wishing to make a donation should contact Kathryn Farrell, Fundraising Manager at Western Health, on 8345 7380 or email kathryn.farrell@wh.org.au