Getting creative to save babies' lives

Dick Frizzell (left) and Mark Castator are among dozens of artists helping with the LifePod project. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Kiwi inventor Sir Ray Avery is getting help from dozens of artists around the world to raise money for lifesaving baby incubators.

Designed by Sir Ray, the LifePods cost $2000 each to make and are an affordable option for hospitals in developing countries, as opposed to the traditional machines which typically cost more than $44,000.

An incubator is used to nurse premature and sick newborns inside a neutral thermal environment. Normal incubators can be expensive to maintain and require purified water and an uninterrupted power supply - which can be difficult to find in developing countries.

Sir Ray's design is much cheaper and easier to maintain and his charity, Medical Mondiale, is aiming to raise $2 million to make the first lot.

Sir Ray Avery's LifePods cost $2000 each. Photo / Dean Purcell

About 20 artists have offered pieces of their work to be put up for auction in a bid to help the fundraising campaign.

American sculptor Mark Castator was at the Auckland Art Gallery last week, where he donated the piece Queen of Hearts to the campaign.

"I make art and as artists, we get asked to donate stuff all the time. This is a great cause and I was happy to help," he said.

Castator is married to Kiwi entrepreneur Claudia Batten, who co-founded big-time digital business Massive Inc - later bought by Microsoft for between US$200 million ($281.2 million) and US$400 million.

She was named the supreme award winner at last year's World Class New Zealand Awards, where Castator and Sir Ray met.

"We started talking there about his cause," Castator said. "I do work with the World Bicycle Foundation, which helps girls in Africa get to school and around each day on a bike; it empowers them. This was just another way of helping a cause like that - but with art."

Other artists involved in the fundraiser include Dick Frizzell, Emma Louise Pratt and Neil Dawson.

Sir Ray's wife, Lady Anna Avery, is organising the art event. The works will be auctioned in November.

Lady Anna said the hope was to raise $200,000, which would fund 2000 LifePods.

"We believe all children, no matter what circumstance they are born into, deserve a chance," she said.

"A baby can end up being someone who changes the world and [Sir] Ray really believes that."