Newport radio host triples £500 target with 36-hour broadcast for the NHS

Chris Lane, from Newport, has raised more than £1,600 since his 36-hour marathon last weekend, when he hosted a special edition of his weekly radio show Mixed Online for a day and a half.

Chris, 21, is a facilities manager but has a passion for radio and broadcasts every Sunday night from his home studio.

He was inspired to use his show to help the NHS after seeing others' fundraising targets and initially set a target of £500.

"I was seeing that lots of people were raising money for the NHS, including Captain Tom Moore," he said.

"I've done an online radio show for the last four years so I thought I could do a challenge and raise some money too.

"I've already done a 24-hour broadcast for something else, I thought I would go one better and do 36 hours."

Chris was on his own throughout the broadcast, juggling producing and presenting duties, though he did have remote technical support from friends Jonathan Newton and Harry Simons.

He was allowed a five-minute break for every hour and saved his breaks up to get snatches of sleep.

"We had a lot of people phone in – I wanted to get people on the show who were connected to the NHS and key workers.

"We had one person working in Tesco saying that their colleague was doing an eight-hour shift and then going to the hospital to work there.

"I'm surprised how many people we had listening in. We had over 3,000 people listening altogether.

"It was lovely to have people talking to me throughout the night, keeping me company – we had song requests at 4am.

"On Saturday morning I really did feel rough, I wondered 'am I going to get through this?'

"Going into Saturday afternoon I felt much better, lots of people were getting involved in the show.

"By the end of it I felt like I could go for a few more hours."

The online fundraiser is still open – visit justgiving.com/fundraising/nhs36 to learn more and to donate.

Listen to Mixed Online from 7pm on Sundays at mixlr.com/mixedonline/.