As the 55th Telethon prepares to kick off in Perth this weekend, The University of Western Australia will also give audiences a glimpse of some world-class research funded by the charity.
As part of the Telethon weekend, the Telethon Family Festival will be held at Perth RAC Arena and surrounding streets with fun, family entertainment and activities this Sunday.
Children and their parents will have the chance to participate in engaging and interactive activities explaining and demonstrating Telethon-funded UWA research and how it is helping the community.
Professor Valerie Verhasselt, from UWA’s Medical School, Director of the Larsson Rosenquist Foundation Centre of Research for Immunology and Breastfeeding and Head of Immunology and Breast Feeding at the Telethon Kids Institute, and her team will showcase their research on colostrum. This first breast milk has a special composition that appears to be tailored for newborns but there is a widespread insufficient colostrum feeding.
Funded by Channel 7 Telethon Trust and using data from the ORIGINS Project, her research examines the early feeding practices of 1,000 children in WA and their relation to disease development, including allergy, infection, obesity and cognitive disorders.
Celebrating 11 years of Telethon funding, the Thriving in Motion afterschool program will be back at the festival, running exercise activities for kids from 10am to 4pm.
Dr Bonnie Furzer, Thriving’s founding director, said the program provided tailored and positive exercise experiences to young people in WA impacted by complex physical and/or mental health conditions that limited their ability to participate in community or school sport.
“Telethon’s amazing support, over the past 11 years, enables us to fulfil a vital need within the community, positively impacting thousands of families’ and children’s lives, through the power of exercise,” Dr Furzer said.
Associate Professor Caitlin Wyrwoll, from UWA’s School of Human Sciences, will be at the festival giving visitors the opportunity to see the links between poor quality drinking water, which is rife in remote and regional WA, with pregnancy complications.
Dr Robyn Choi, from UWA’s School of Human Sciences, aims to improving the ability of school-aged children with Central Auditory Processing Disorder to process spoken information and enhance their mental health through a treatment of rhythmic exercise and music, which will also be on show.
The Telethon Family Festival will be held at RAC Arena and Wellington Street on Sunday 23 October. Telethon will be broadcast live for 26 hours from RAC Arena from 7pm, Saturday 22 October.
