It’s that time of year when the who’s who of the Coast get together for the Wishlist Spring Carnival Lunch in Caloundra to both celebrate the arrival of the spring racing calendar — with fascinators and frocks — and to raise thousands of dollars to improve health services on the Coast.

This year the event is set to celebrate a major milestone with the organising committee hoping to hit the $1 million mark for funds raised since the inception of the event in 2009.

Wishlist CEO Lisa Rowe admits it’s an ambitious target needing to raise $152,199 in less than four hours, however the event has exceeded this total once before and Ms Rowe feels this year’s two causes will resonate strongly with the guests in the room.

“We have been blown away by the generosity of our guests over the past seven years and the $847,801 is an impressive total to date and certainly a number that everyone who has been involved can be very proud of,” Ms Rowe said.

“Through this year’s gala event Wishlist will raise funds for a Flex Focus 800 Ultrasound to assist our top local surgeons operating on cancer patients.”

“If we can purchase this equipment, it will be the first of its kind publicly-available on the Coast.”

Ms Rowe said additional proceeds from the highly-anticipated event on Friday September 16 will go towards providing a Clown Doctor service to Sunshine Coast Hospital – another first for the region.

“Wishlist has become the sole sponsor of the Humour Foundation’s Clown Doctors on the Coast to treat children in hospital with medicine of a different kind – with doses of fun and laughter.”

“Through using oversized medical equipment, ‘red nose’ transplants, ‘cat’ scans, humour checks and funny bone examinations, fear and anxiety are significantly reduced.”

“And the benefits of laughter are real – it relaxes the muscles, helps the immune system, reduces pain, helps promote a positive outlook and has a good effect on the cardiovascular and respiratory system.”

Ms Rowe said giving directly to Wishlist for the cause would ensure 100 per cent of funds for the Clown Doctor service stays local.

“This is a partnership we are extremely proud of.”

Caloundra mum Kim Speare has seen first-hand the benefits of Clown Doctors when her son Colby spent 505 consecutive days in hospital after being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Ms Speare said her family’s life changed in an instant when Colby was admitted to hospital in 2010 as a seven-year-old who would then go on to celebrate two birthdays, two Easters and a Christmas in the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.

“We were very fortunate to have the Clown Doctors visit the ward regularly and they played an enormous role in helping Colby cope with being hospitalised for such an extended period of time,” Ms Speare said.

“There were so many incredibly tough days that would’ve been even tougher without the Clown Doctors’ amazing ability to bring out laughter and smiles on even the hardest of days.”

“One particular time, when Colby was due to have yet another blood test and was extremely scared, Dr Kerfuffle and Dr Reddy stopped by to say hi as we sat in the waiting room.  They could tell he was frightened so they offered to come into the room with him — it was a tight fit in a little room but the difference it made for Colby was huge.”

“He proceeded to have the blood test while the doctors sang silly songs and did some very impressive magic tricks, before leaving with a band aid and a smile on his face.”

“I don’t think anyone could truly understand the impact or importance of what Clown Doctors do until they are faced with their child being in hospital.”

Ms Rowe said through the Wishlist Spring Carnival – and donations from the Sunshine Coast community – Clown Doctors would become regular faces in the new Sunshine Coast University Hospital to divert children’s attention during painful procedures, calm them in emergency and encouraging them in physiotherapy.

“We are wanting to commit to three years of the service at one day a week, but hopefully with community support we can ramp this up in the future to two days each week.”

“We would be delighted to bring the Clown Doctors to the Coast in order to brighten the lives of kids going through situations that no child should have to deal with,” Ms Rowe said.

This year the event will be held on Friday, 16 September at the Caloundra Events Centre with Natalie Barr from Sunrise returning to the Sunshine Coast to host the day as guests are treated to a jam-packed program with a number of surprises.

Major auction items include corporate packages, overseas and local holidays, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and over 75 silent auction items which are already available for bidding on Galabid at www.galabid.com/springcarnival.

For more information on Wishlist, please visit www.wishlist.org.au.