The people of Western Australia have raised a record breaking $38,000,554 for Telethon 2018. The total now raised since Telethon was launched in 1958 has now passed $300m.
In a highlight, Curtin University and the Telethon Kids institute announced the creation of the Kerry Stokes Chair in Child Health in recognition of Kerry Stokes’s contribution to the health and welfare of children in WA.
Telethon 2018 kicked off Saturday night to a sold-out audience at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. The marathon 26 hours of TV went live on Channel 7 Perth and across WA on GWN7 and was streamed nationally via the telethon7.com, thewest.com.au and perthnow.com.au website.
Ray Burgess and Casey Barnes were among the stars who entertained, plus Leo Sayer and Glenn Shorrock came from the Lexus Ball to give a surprise stellar performance. The Lexus Ball raised $1,700,000.
The team at Telethon and Channel 7 Perth led an army of more than 250 TV production crew, 600 entertainers and 1,000 volunteers to make this year’s Telethon weekend the most successful ever.
A huge lineup of 7 Network personalities flew in from around Australia including David Koch, Mark Beretta from Sunrise; Lynne McGranger, James Stewart, Rohan Nichol, Patrick O’Connor, Sarah Roberts, Lukas Radovich, Sophie Dillman, Anna Cocquerel and Sam Frost from Home And Away; Wendy Moore, Carolyn Burns-McCrave and Perth finalists Chiara and David from House Rules; Issa Schultz, Matt Parkinson and Brydon Coverdale from The Chase Australia; Sam Lane, Sam McClure, Mel McLaughlin and Nathan Templeton from Seven Sport; Karen Ledbury and Larry Emdur from The Morning Show and Tom Williams from The Daily Edition; Perth teams Stella & Jazzey and Marco & Davide from MKR; Peter Ford, Seven Entertainment Reporter; Greg Gould and Silvie Paladino from All Together Now; Adam Dovile from Better Homes and Gardens; Andrew Denton from Interview and Perth’s own Joel Creasey from Take Me Out.
They were joined by 7 Perth stars – Rick Ardon, Susannah Carr, Basil Zempilas, Sam Jolly, Matt Tinney, Ryan Daniels, Angela Tsun and Adrian Barich, plus many more from 7 News as well as Today Tonight’s Monika Kos, Mark Gibson, Graeme Butler, Mark Readings and Syan Dougherty, plus many of Perth’s radio personalities from Mix 94.5, hit 92.9, 96fm, 6PR and 6iX.