What do your Radiothon donations support this year?

This year, your donations support the purchase of a brand new NICU Transport Unit!

The NICU Transport Unit serves as a lifeline for approximately 30 newborns each month, ensuring they receive the critical care they need at Niswonger Children’s Hospital. This specialized transport vehicle is equipped with neonatal-specific technology and staffed by a team of dedicated healthcare professionals, including advanced level NICU nurses and respiratory therapists, ready to respond swiftly and efficiently to emergencies. Covering all Ballad Health birthing centers as well as some outlying facilities, our NICU Transport Unit provides seamless medical transportation for these fragile infants. Our team is committed to offering the highest level of care during every mile of the journey ensuring that each baby arrives safely and promptly at Niswonger Children’s Hospital, where they can receive the comprehensive and specialized treatments they require. With a focus on compassionate, expert care, our NICU Transport Unit stands as a beacon of hope and healing for families in our community.

Meet our 2025 Children's Miracle Network Champion Child

Cleo

Type 1 diabetes

Bubbly, friendly Cleo is a true performer and loves making people laugh. The first time she took center stage, she was six months old and dolled up in a pageant dress. She usually participates in about three or four pageants a year. But those were put on hold last year when she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, a week before she turned five. Cleo’s world — and her mother’s — were suddenly turned upside down.

“We had to turn our attention to other things,” says her mother, Bethane. During a three-night stay at Niswonger Children’s Hospital, Cleo was given insulin to stabilize her blood sugar, and Bethane learned how to monitor her condition with insulin shots.

The silver lining was meeting Cleo’s nurse practitioner at the hospital, who also has type 1 diabetes. “Cleo knows that her nurse understands what she’s going through,” Bethane says. “And that’s made her feel a lot better.”

Cleo’s managing so well that she was able to start kindergarten last August and is back to taking center stage at the pageants she loves.

Click here to read about all of our 2025 child ambassadors!

Why Should You Get Involved in Radiothon?

Patients, team members, and community partners and volunteers of the region’s only children’s hospital will kick off the 2024 Ballad Health Niswonger Children's Hospital Radiothon on March 6th & 7th this year.

For a decade now, radiothon has brought the community together for a good cause through media outlets. Four of Holston Valley Broadcasting Corporation’s radio stations (98.5 WTFM, 95.9 The Hog WRZK, Classic Hits 102.7 FM, and ESPN Tri-Cities) will broadcast stories featuring families treated at Niswonger Children’s Hospital, doctors, and other staff members who work in the hospital. This is a day of encouraging the community to give back to their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, as we rely on community supported funds to help us continue to provide excellent care to our patients and their families. The radiothon is the children’s hospital’s second largest annual fundraiser, and it has raised more than $3 million for babies, children, teenagers and their families in the Appalachian Highlands.

The 2025 Radiothon will support the newly announced expansion into Niswonger Children's Network. Through Ballad Health affiliate clinics and primary care offices, the expansion ensures that kids and families in every area of our region receive the same quality care they would as if they were treated at Niswonger Children's Hospital.

At Niswonger Children's Hospital we believe that seeing a kite fly from the ground and flutter in the breeze is a sign of hope and healing. By supporting Radiothon and raising funds and awareness for our hospital, you are helping us make kites fly, to help and heal the young people of this region - and, ultimately, to make hope rise.