A BIG bogan party is on the way with plenty of air guitar shred off.
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Sisters Alyce Goold and Jess Rutherford’s fundraising venture has been overwhelmed with people wanting to unleash their inner bogan next month for a sold out night of Bogan Bingo.
They are open to ideas and more bogan support to boost research into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Ms Goold and Ms Rutherford are swapping their light blue running singlets for mullets and moccies in the name of River’s Gift, the largest source of non-government funding for SIDS research in Australia.
Known for bringing the River’s Gift running programs to Ballarat, they wanted to mix up their work a little and go out on a bogan limb.
“We wanted to do something fun and out there,” Ms Rutherford said. “We’ll still do our running...For this, you can wear whatever you think when you hear the word bogan.”
The event is via their fundraising channel Charlie’s Chapter to honour Ms Rutherford’s healthy baby girl Charlie who died, aged 20 weeks, three years ago.
Ms Rutherford had made contact with Alex Hamilton, River’s Gift co-founder, who had lost her baby River to SIDS in late 2011. Charlie’s Chapter began to partner with the Geelong-based charity two years ago.
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While the pain of losing Charlie still acutely hurts, Ms Rutherford said it was heartening to see some research results to help stop any parents ever having to experience what she had.
University of Adelaide announced a breakthrough last year, discovering a significant abnormality within the brainstem in SIDS babies that controls breathing and head and neck movements.
This is the first time it has been directly linked to SIDS cases and could suggest why some babies sleeping on their front are more at high risk. The research was funded under a fellowship established by River’s Gift.
“You feel like you’re getting somewhere after all the fundraising,” Ms Rutherford said. “You like to see your money doing something.”
So, out will come the blueys, flannies and tinnies for the cultural fun night at the Mining Exchange, which is donating full use of the venue for the event on June 16.
Anyone wanting to help support the bogan venture and SIDS research, can contact Alyce on 0409 759 971 or email Jess, jrutherford@riversgift.org.
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