You guys are great – we’re really thankful for everyone that’s on Kai’s team. Who has stopped to speak to us, who has fundraised or donated or spent time thinking good will our way. We’re really lucky to have so many people on our team.
We’re pretty sure that most of you we know, or you’re friends with our friends or our families. That you have some connection with us and Kai, and we’re grateful. But we’re also aware that in terms of growing awareness, and gaining more funds for NKH Research is difficult when we’ve already saturated the people we know with the same message. We’re preaching to the choir, you know?
In the interest of taking our story a bit bigger, spreading awareness wider and outside the realm of family friends – we’ve been working with the media. Or rather, trying really hard to work with the media. We’re not doing so well with that.
- There was one horrific story about Charlie Gard in The Sun. They edited out all the bits about Kai and NKH.
- There was a post-baby body confidence piece in Mother&Baby , buuuut nothing about NKH.
- A tiny quote in Cosmo about dating lines, and one Sam used on me (way nothing to do with NKH, but hilarious)
- A piece in the NZ Herald, written specifically about Kai and NKH, but the NZ Herald video team can’t handle timezones and baby schedules so the piece was cancelled.
I can’t figure it out. I have no idea how to work with the media. (Anyone got any tips?)
Are we just not newsworthy? Is this beautiful face not made for the news?
I mean, that hair, right?
Instead, we’ve tried to work with more people who get it, who are a bit like us. The Baby Nation Show found us on Instagram and asked if we’d like to feature on their podcast. That was pretty fun – in a past life Sam did an audio technician degree, so busted out his professional microphone gear.
Maybe it’s just that we’re a bit narcissistic and enjoy talking about ourselves, but I enjoyed it, and I know Sam did too. It was a light-hearted discussion about Kai, about our time in NICU, about finding out about our diagnosis and how we managed.
If you’re interested and want to hear us blather on about how much we adore Kai and what it was like in the early days with the perspective of now – you can listen here:
The Baby Nation Podcast: #7 The Mighty Mikaere
We’re pleased as punch to be featured. The weird thing is while we were talking it was quite light hearted and fun. We talk about Kai and his birth and time in NICU all the time. We do the spiel at every fundraiser.
Listening back to it when the podcast went live… woah buddy. I cried, hearing back about those first few weeks was tough.
Still, Ivan moved us on quickly enough so it wasn’t long before I was laughing at us again. Possibly the most successful media-esque thing we’ve done to date!
Definitely check it out, if you’ve got a spare half hour to listen to us gush about Kai.
PS – at the end we were asked to mention people and we reacted with deer in headlights and missed a TON of people. So, if I had been clever enough to have a list, I would have added:
Liz and Mark, Chris, Phil, Pam and Robert, the Great Aunts and Uncles (Sue, Sal and Robin and family), the Chocolate Deli, Margot, Sandra, Colin, Jenny and Clare, Tony and Tess, Tony and Penny, the Toddington Methodist Community, the people in Toddington we love who aren’t in the Methodist Church Community, our Homestart ladies Mandy and Dinah, Kai’s Nurses Wai, Elaine and Mina, our Hospice Nurse Tracie and all the nurses and carers at Christophers, and C&W and St George’s. Dr Makki Hameed. The paediatric A&E emergency staff (especially Dr Lucas and our fav nurse Jane).
I still feel like we’re missing loads of people, for which I apologise. You guys – we love you. Thank you for being on #teamMikaere. We couldn’t have survived without you all!
