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Perth Telethon raises $9.2m

Travolta or no Travolta, Perth's Telethon still digs deep and breaks records for charity. Again.

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John Travolta was a last minute cancellation but Perth’s annual Telethon raised more than $9m for the children’s hospitals, charities and research into childhood diseases.

Always a big money spinner, the two-day event raised $9,237,539, breaking the previous record of $7.5 million.

Travolta was on the east coast for Qantas celebrations but flew back to the US when pregnant wife Kelly Preston went into labour.

By midday on Sunday one anonymous family pledged to match all phone donations from noon to the close of the show – dollar for dollar.

“It’s exciting we’ve been working towards it for 12 months so this weekend is the big payoff for all of the fundraising events that people have done for Telethon,” said Telethon Trust general manager Steve Mummery. “It’s just phenomenal.”

Numerous Seven personalities lent their time to appear across the 43rd telecast.

This year’s broadcast included an Amazing Race-style contest, the Worldwide Celebrity Search, requiring resenters from five different radio stations to travel to Los Angeles and London and get endorsements from overseas celebrities.

The challenge produced some surprising support from Justin Bieber, Keith Urban, Will Ferrell, Rolf Harris, Roger Daltrey and James May. Telethon has always had a history of getting A-List celebs to back it, including its once-famous appearance from Michael Jackson.

Even without John Travolta the people of WA still love their Telethon.

Source: The West, PerthNow

13 Responses

  1. @josh from WA – I wondered that too, but then they said it was a local family, so there went that theory! Our suspicions were the Oswals or Twiggy Forrest.

  2. “Travolta was on the east coast for Qantas celebrations but flew back to the US when pregnant wife Kelly Preston went into labour.”

    David, are you sure this isn’t just a cover story and that the real reason was that he didn’t want to spend that long on a Qantas jet in case one of the engines fell off? j/k

  3. I know several people who were involved via fundraising, manning phones or background of the production and everyone is so proud to be a part of it. Well done to everyone who chipped in!

  5. I remember when channel 7 sydney and NBN Newcastle had telethons at least once a year in the 70’s and 80’s ( there may have been other channels that did them as well but these are the only two that I remember watching)

  7. it was quite an amazing effort done by the celebrities over the weekend, not to mention the anonymous donation. Though i guess it woulnd’t be any particular family, as it would be hard to predict how much money was going to be donated in the time period, not to mention matching it all, meaning they would have had a fair few to give. Its still great to see the community can keep on giving, lets hope it continues on 🙂

  9. anonymous family pledges 1 million…absolutely fantastice

    Anyone else wonder it was the Travoltas?

    I mean, John couldnt make it and im sure he would have wanted to help in some way….

    Anyway respect for wanting to remain anonymous even though i may have just spoiled it

  10. It was another great Telethon. Really good do see so many people get behind it. It was a shame that John Travolta couldn’t make it as there was a big lead up to it and Basil Zemplias making a mention that Qantas was paying for his appearance fee etc.

    Carrie Fisher was very funny and Boo Boo Stewart (Seth Clearwater from the Twilight Saga) was a good sport.

    Raising $9.2 million brings it to over $100 million has been raised since it started.

    Looking forward to next years!

  11. Well the Minute to Win It challenges that the celebrities had to go through were quite funny, and that the last one was worth 1 million alone. Who would have known that Rob Palmer with Pantyhose over his head with a cricket ball down one leg, knocking water bottles over would be so funny

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