Top: Visage
Bottom l-r: K.B. and Freddie Munnings Jr
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Nassau, Bahamas - Dozens
of singers, musicians, radio hosts and performers will pool their
talents and their time to help raise funds to fight cancer when the
first national Cancer Society of The
Bahamas telethon airs
this Sunday.
The show, to be broadcast live from Atlantis, will be aired on ZNS-TV,
Cable 12 and JCN simultaneously from 1-5 pm with the public invited to
drop in and participate as well as call in to a 14-line phone bank that
will include a free line for Family Island
calls.
“The partnerships between the media houses, entertainers, technical
crews and the incredible support of Atlantis have been just amazing as
we lead up to this telethon,” said Lovern Wildgoose, president of the
Society founded in 1976 to assist patients facing
what was then largely a date with death and nearly four decades later
has a far better survival rate thanks to massive efforts in research,
education and early detection and available treatment.
“The energy that is being brought to this event and the dedication by so
many people, including the dozens of community and civic leaders who
will be working the phones, renews our faith in humankind and
demonstrates how broad the desire to assist in the fight
against cancer is,” said Ms. Wildgoose, noting that cancer is still the
number two cause of death in The Bahamas.
The telethon – a combination of entertainment, interviews with
survivors, vignettes from those who have received treatment thanks to
the existence of the Cancer Caring Centre – is the official kick-off of a
$3 million campaign to raise funds for the much-needed
expansion of the Centre off Collins Avenue. The Cancer Society plans to
add 16 new rooms to the 10-room facility that Wildgoose says is “all
too often full to capacity with a waiting list.” The expansion will also
provide for this island’s first hospice care
facility and will enable a day care centre for Nassau patients. Since
its opening in late 2005, the Centre has served more than 800 patients,
offering a place to stay mostly for those from the Family Islands while
they are undergoing treatment in Nassau. For
cancer patients, it is an oasis, a place of calm and tranquility and
emotional support during a difficult time.
“We urgently need the general public as well as the corporate community
to understand and appreciate how important this work is. The Cancer
Caring Centre, which has long since outgrown its original size, is often
all that stands between hope and hopelessness,”
said Ms. Wildgoose. “That is why we called the telethon Building Hope.
We are focusing on the positive knowing that there is hardly a family in
The Bahamas that has not been touched by the disease but by spreading
the word that there is hope and there is love,
together as a community we can make treatment possible for so many
more. This is four hours that can make a difference in the lives of
thousands going forward.”
Among the entertainers donating their time are Freddie Munnings, Jr.,
Kirkland ‘KB’ Bodie, the Bahama Brass Band, the Tabernacle Concert
Choir, Pat Rahming, Urvan Moxey, Ira Storr and the Spank Band, and
Visage. Eight well-known hosts are set to share master
of ceremony duties, keeping the show flowing – Jessica Robertson, Greg
Lampkin, Lester R. Cox, Paul Fernander, Gandhi Pinder, Eddie Carter,
Naughty, Tessa Lightbourn and Anthony ‘Skeebo’ Roberts.
Atlantis is donating space for free parking just east of the bridge and
the Paradise Island police station. The public is invited.