Bucks Keep Rollin’ in for Burns Trust
Earlier this year Clipsal announced the Bucks for Burns campaign in collaboration with the Julian Burton Burns Trust. This three-year national partnership brought the two organisations together with one major goal in mind - to save children’s lives.
This initiative, whilst less than six months off the ground, is already proving extremely successful and has already raised almost 60,000 dollars, just from local fundraising events alone.
Money raised will fund important programs to help prevent and educate people about burn injuries, support burns victims as well as to fund future research equipment for Burns Units around Australia.
Kathryn (Kathy) Bicknell from the Burns Unit of The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne has kindly given her time to describe how valuable organisations, like the Julian Burton Burns Trust, are helping burns units around Australia. She explains where the money goes and how it makes such difference to peoples’ lives.
Kathryn has been working as a Clinical Nurse Consultant at the RCH for over 25 years, the last 15 of which have been dedicated to working in the Burns Unit. Kathy explained that the most common burn injury they see at the RCH is scald burns to children in the one to two-year age grou
“Burn injuries mainly occur when the child reaches up and pulls a cup of hot tea or coffee off a kitchen bench or they pull a pot of hot fluid off a stove,” said Kathy.
Kathy believes many burn injuries could be avoided and that there is definitely a need for burns prevention awareness. She said whilst a lot of good work has been done in the past, there’s still much work required – nearly all burn injuries are preventable.
That’s where support from the Julian Burton Burns Trust (Burns Trust) and Clipsal Australia is helping. Kathy said the hospital’s link with the Julian Burton Burns Trust means that they have another avenue available to access funding, to buy the equipment required to help care for burns’ patients.
“Just recently the Burns Trust helped in the renovating and refurbishment of our playroom and family facilities on the Burns Ward. Thanks to this, these areas are now more pleasant for the children and families to access.
The Julian Burton Burns Trust also gives us another avenue to be involved in burn prevention strategies.”
Recently the Victorian Club Clipsal International biennial dinner raised $9,400 for the Julian Burton Burns Trust. Kathy says this money enables the Burns Unit at the RCH to make the outpatient journey a little easier for the patients.
“The money will go towards the outpatient department; helping to purchase equipment used for distraction during dressing changes, such as an iPad, PlayStation and a Ditto virtual reality distraction device.”
This equipment is most effective during dressing changes which, especially in the acute stage, are often painful and distressing for the child and parent. Medication alone is not always enough to overcome this.
“The use of distraction has been shown to decrease a child’s anxiety and stress, which makes it a more positive experience for everyone involved.”
All of which is made possible thanks to the tremendous work of the Julian Burton Burns Trust and Clipsal, who together are improving the lives of those affected by burn injuries throughout Australia
Media Contact: Alex Beltrame, Clipsal Australia Pty Ltd Ph: (08) 8161 0822
For general media enquiries about Clipsal please contact:
- Alex Beltrame,
Media Manager,
Ph: +61 8 8161 0822
