Keep track of time and help sick kids

At this time of year many people start planning ahead by purchasing a calendar for next year. Now making this purchase can also be your chance to make life easier for sick children. Kalendar Kidz 2002 is a unique publication featuring amazing photographic images of children and all proceeds from the sale of this calendar benefit the Neurology and Neurosurgery Department at The Children's Hospital at Westmead.

Lillian Rowsell, aged 14 months, from Old Bar on the NSW North Coast, is one child who will benefit from the sale of the calendar. After suffering bad seizures in the first two weeks of her life, she was diagnosed with a condition where one half of her brain is not as fully developed as the other. Lillian has been in and out of The Children's Hospital at Westmead throughout her life and has had surgery to remove the abnormal part of her brain, as well as having a shunt fitted.

Kalendar Kidz 2002 features spectacular black and white photographic images of children which were submitted from all over New South Wales by school students, art students, medical practitioners and staff from The Children's Hospital at Westmead.

The money raised through the sale of this calendar will be directly used to assist children with neurological conditions such as infections of the brain or spinal cord or more chronic conditions including epilepsy, cerebral palsy, Tourette's Syndrome and muscular dystrophies.

The Hospital hopes to be able to maintain funding for a Neurological Fellowship to train doctors in the difficult specialty of Paediatric Neurology. This program will cost around $70,000 for 2002 and will be of enormous benefit to sick children.

Young Lillian Rowsell's mum, Andrea said, "It has been of enormous benefit to us to have a Neurological Fellow within the Hospital to treat Lillian on an ongoing basis. The current Neurological Fellow, Dr Helen Young, has been with us through good times and bad and has become very familiar with Lillian's situation, which makes life a lot easier. Hopefully this is a position that can continue to be funded for the benefit of our family and many others with a child with a neurological condition."

The Hospital also hopes to purchase an Ambulatory EEG Monitor with proceeds from the sale of the calendar. This specialised equipment will be used to help diagnose and treat children with epilepsy in the security and comfort of their own home, rather than admitting them for a hospital stay.

Jane Antony, Head of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery said, "The children we see at The Children's Hospital at Westmead are sometimes not as fortunate as the happy, healthy children featured on the pages of the Kalendar Kidz. Hopefully with additional funds through the sale of the calendars we will be one step closer to addressing this imbalance."

Kalendar Kidz 2002 is available from The Children's Hospital at Westmead, newsagents throughout New South Wales, the Bandaged Bear e-Shop or by phoning (02) 9845 2667. Kalendar Kidz is priced at $12.95.

For all media enquiries, please contact:

Julie Stromborg
Public Relations Officer
Ph: (02) 9845 3580
Fax: (02) 9845 3567
Pager: (02) 9845 0000 and quote page no. 6920

Images from Kalendar Kidz and Lillian Rowsell are available upon request.
Interviews/photo shoots can be also arranged.