Blue September songathon: Dannevirke man's subtle ode to his late brother

Gary Grant in the studio. Photo / Supplied

Gary Grant's love of music is probably what prompted his idea to run a songathon for Blue September.

The volunteer at Radio Dannevirke usually has a show every weekend where he plays classic songs from the 60s, but last weekend he decided to do something a little different.

The community radio station normally does something to help raise money for Blue September, the annual appeal for prostate cancer, but with the recent lockdown they hadn't come up with anything this year.

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Grant said the volunteer presenters were unable to do their shows during lockdown, but once they were able to return to the studio he thought they could do something for the appeal.

"The adverts were on TV. I do a show on a Saturday morning and all I do is play songs anyway," he said.

Because they hadn't been able to do any organising, they had a limited amount of time to put something together, and his idea wasn't going to take too much time.

He put together a playlist where every song either had 'blue' in the title, or the word was in the name of the artist.

Seventies pop band Blue Mink got a run, as did Neil Diamond's Forever in Blue Jeans.

Grant visited businesses around Dannevirke asking them if they would like to sponsor a song on his playlist.

"All the songs that had been sponsored, I made sure they got played."

The sponsors also got a shout-out on the radio.

A cake supplied by the bakery at New World was also auctioned off.

Grant's brother died nearly three months ago after a battle with prostate cancer.

"I didn't say anything until the end of the show. I didn't want people to think I'm doing this just for that, but I felt it important to say that I do have a personal connection with this as well, just to highlight the importance of it."

Grant said doing the event for Blue September wasn't just about raising money.

"It's the awareness you bring to people of it.

"You've got to make people aware that it is a real thing. And it does claim your life if you don't get it sorted."

He also felt it was important to get checked.

Having learnt of his brother's terminal illness he decided to go to his own doctor to check, to see if it was a family trait.

"I'm not worried or fretting about it but I'm keeping a conscious eye on things, just to make sure."

Radio Dannevirke managed to raise $1240 while another Dannevirke event, at Sugar and Salt cafe, raised $1425 by selling cupcakes.