Mix 102.3 Adelaide’s Jodie & Soda have completed their biggest rescue ever, raising far more than the $200,000 needed to grant Kerry’s Final Wish to build a Cancer Wellness Centre for the people of South Australia.
Soda also broke a Guinness World Record by spending 52 consecutive hours, without sleeping, on the Ferris Wheel at the Garden of Unearthly Delights as part of the massive fund-raising effort with the Flinders Foundation.
Kerry Briggs’ story has been very close to the hearts of Jodie, Soda and listeners of their Mix 102.3 breakfast show since Soda first learnt about Kerry at the Pink Yellow Blue Charity Ball cancer fund raising event in 2016.
Kerry was a mum of two and wife to David, and battled breast cancer since she was diagnosed in 2011 until her death in December 2016.
After meeting the family, Soda decided to do all he could to support Kerry, David and their family by helping to make Kerry’s three wishes come true.
Along with generous help from Mix 102.3 listeners Jodie & Soda have made Kerry’s wish of creating a tribute garden in her home for her family to remember her and last year her family and friends (and Soda) travelled to New York to fulfil her second wish of running the New York marathon together.
Kerry’s final wish was the creation of a Cancer Wellness Centre, where cancer patients and their families in South Australia would be supported during the life upheaval of a cancer diagnosis.
Her vision has become the focus of the Flinders Foundation who are working to build the centre, but $200,000 was needed for the project to go ahead.
Jodie & Soda kicked off their 52 hour fund-raising marathon on Wednesday morning, doing their show live while riding the Ferris Wheel and raising $225,092.60 for the Flinders Foundation. It was all going really well for the breakfast duo, until Jodie started to feel unwell. She battled on but at the six-hour mark, Jodie was told by paramedics on site that she couldn’t go on with the challenge.
That left Soda to see the challenge through – battling boredom as best he could, staying awake at all costs and doing the Jodie & Soda Breakfast Show live from the Ferris Wheel on Thursday and Friday morning.
Of her co-host Soda’s efforts, Jodie Oddy said: “My co-host’s stubbornness normally drives me nuts but on his occasion it made him a world record holder and a bit of a hero.. cue Mariah Carey! I could not be prouder.”
Jodie & Soda have seen huge acts of generosity from the people of Adelaide to make Kerry’s Final Wish a reality. From ten-year-old Alyssa who donated $54.50 – all the money she had in the world – through to big donations from Flinders Private Hospital, Drakes Supermarkets, Taylor and Holmes, Robern Menz, and Agile Group.
A further donation this morning which saw Jodie & Soda exceed their target was donated by the West End Community Fund who donated $40,000 (in addition to their earlier $10,000 donation) to take money raised to $218,121.90.
The final tally at 9am on Friday, February 22 was $222,409.10, and donations continued through the day which has seen the final tally sit at $225,092.60. Kerry’s Final Wish of building a Cancer Wellness Centre will now become a reality.
Jodie said: “Soda and I are so excited to get this wellness centre built. It feels like every second person has been touched by cancer which has resulted in an incredible amount of generosity from our friends of the show.”