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On 11 March at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne (RCH), Alisa and Oliver Camplin-Warner, founders of Finnan’s Gift, celebrated another outstanding year of fundraising for the hospital. The Finnan’s Gift appeal reached its fundraising goal of $75,000 which will provide the hospital with six Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) monitors.

Alisa Camplin, Winter Olympic gold medalist said: “When Oliver and I launched Finnan’s Gift in 2011 we never expected the community to embrace and support our goals as much as they have.”

“Knowing that Finnan’s legacy of supporting a better future for cardiac children continues by making high-impact gifts, makes us exceptionally proud. The generosity of the community has filled our hearts and we are so thankful to all the donors who have helped us achieve another incredible outcome” said Alisa.

Hospitals around the world are now using NIRS technology to monitor the levels of blood and oxygen in individual organs, by the equipment outputting a number based on the blood and oxygen levels of a patient. This will be the first time the RCH are able to offer this type of non-evasive monitoring outside the operating theatre. Data obtained from these monitors will enable RCH medical staff to pick up early warning signs which may potentially save a child’s life.

“We are thrilled to bring these 6 cutting edge devices to the RCH because we know they will directly improve patient care.  It’s been a really big journey for us. We still think about Finnan every day, but now we meet other families in the hospital who are benefiting from Finnan's gifts and we realise how much he has helped people" said Alisa.

"We loved our boy so much that we wanted to make sure his fight wasn’t for nothing, we wanted to do something which ensured his legacy lived on and hopefully would make him proud," said Oliver.

Finnan’s Gift was established by Alisa and Oliver in 2011 in honour of their son Finnan Maximus Camplin-Warner who was prematurely brought into the world after doctors had diagnosed him in-utero with Congenital Heart Disease. Ten days later, Alisa and Oliver’s baby boy peacefully passed away after bravely enduring six open heart surgeries during his short life.

Sue Hunt, Executive Director, The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation said that since its inception, Finnan’s Gift has raised over $800,000 - a remarkable achievement.

“The future of children’s health is in our hands and Finnan’s Gift reminds us all that through fundraising we can support this vision,” said Ms Hunt.

High impact outcomes like this wouldn’t happen without the support of major contributors and fundraisers, special thanks to;

• Embracia
• Johnson & Johnson's
• The Fox Family Foundation
• John Laidlaw
• Team Finnan's Melbourne Marathon runners
• Business Chicks
• Newskills
• Boost Juice Southgate
• Jenny Camplin
• The Iles Family
• The Slater Family
• SMS Alumnae High Tea

Alisa and Oliver also announced Finnan's Gift would massively increase its fundraising next year, aiming to top $250,000 for the RCH with the backing of businesses Embracia and Ray White.