Natalie Bassingthwaighte helped launch the Nissan Leaf at the A World Without Petrol art exhibition at Customs House yesterday in Sydney. Designed by Australian artist James Dive and inspired by electric vehicles, the interactive exhibition of 40 recycled petrol bowsers converted into useful everyday items is intended to promote the Nisaan LEAF, the first mass produced 100% electric vehicle in Australia. See photos from the event below:

AS she prepares for her return to the judging panel on The X Factor, Natalie Bassingthwaighte is pouring her energies into her two great loves, marriage and motherhood.

Bassingthwaighte, who was raised in Wollongong, is firmly settled with her family in Melbourne.

“It’s (Melbourne) where my heart is,” she says.

“My daughter was born here, I got married here and I feel a real connection.”

The TV favourite and singer lives with husband Cameron McGlinchey and their daughter, Harper, 20 months.

Bassingthwaighte has embraced motherhood so enthusiastically it is beginning to influence some of her career decisions.

She has taken a guest hosting role on kids’ show CBeebies Story Time, a series that features celebrities reading popular Australian books for young children.

“Having seen a couple of the episodes from the UK series, I fell in love with it,” Bassingthwaighte says.

“I love reading stories, I love performing and I think children’s books in particular always have something really poignant to say.

“Storytelling and reading to children, or them reading books, is incredibly important for their literacy, their language development, their listening skills, their imagination and creativity.

“One of my favourite authors was Roald Dahl. His stories were just so imaginative. He just used to conjure up so many crazy scenarios and it definitely helped me later in life with my crazy imagination.”

Bassingthwaighte says she and McGlinchey love reading to their daughter.

“We’ve been reading to Harper since she was probably five months old. I think the first story we read to her was Little Red Riding Hood and her eyes were wide open at every turn of the page,” she says.

“Now it’s part of our daily routine. It’s really a great bonding time for us.”

– CBeebies Story Time, CBeebies channel (Foxtel and Austar), Tuesday, 7.15pm

Source: News.com.au

In celebration of the National Year of Reading, pre-school channel CBeebies is launching CBeebies Story Time, a new series which brings together well-known celebrities to read popular Australian books for young children. Top TV presenter and musician Natalie Bassingthwaighte; award-winning actor and presenter Shane Jacobson; acclaimed TV and film actress Claudia Karvan; legendary actor Michael Caton; popular TV presenter Yumi Stynes; country music artist Gina Jeffreys; and actress, singer, and presenter Toni Pearen, are among the celebrity storytellers joining us in the story time chair.

Launching on Monday 23rd April at 7.15pm, CBeebies Story Time will keep the under-sixes enthralled with an imaginative storytelling treat. The series features an exciting mix of enchanting adventures, traditional tales, and contemporary fiction that families will love. Australian authors are at the heart of the series, with captivating stories like ‘Max Meets a Monster’ by Tracey Hawkins, ‘The Great Expedition’ by Peter Carnavas and ‘The Legend of the Golden Snail’ by Graeme Base, taking centre stage.

The 24 x 5 minute series is created and produced in-house and broadcast on CBeebies, BBC Worldwide Australia’s channel for pre-schoolers available on FOXTEL and AUSTAR.

Watch a preview of Nat’s episode – the first to air when the show launches on Monday – below:

Nat was looking stunning in a black Alex Perry dress as she walked the 2012 Logie Awards red carpet at the Crown Palladium in Melbourne tonight. See more photos below:

NATALIE Bassingthwaighte and husband Cameron McGlinchey have snapped up a showcase Melbourne home several weeks before it was to go under the auctioneer’s hammer.

Having been spotted inspecting houses down south for several weeks, it’s understood the newlyweds have bought a four-bedroom property in the celeb-heavy suburb of Brighton.

Their neighbours include Shane Warne, Eric Bana and Harry Kewell.

While the price tag has not been disclosed, the owners are said to have been seeking about $2.4 million at auction.

Two weeks ago The X Factor judge sold her Elizabeth Bay apartment in Sydney for $830,000.

Source: Adelaide Now

Gemma Sutherland travels to Bangladesh with Natalie Bassingthwaighte as she meets the people fighting to stop children dying needlessly from pneumonia.

It’s close to 35 degrees and I’m standing outside the Dhaka Shishu Hospital in Dhaka, the humid, sprawling, polluted, dense and noisy capital of Bangladesh. Besides me stands Natalie Bassingthwaighte, a woman usually found in the glamorous confines of a TV studio. But here she is, surrounded by children and parents swathed in colourful robes. She is having her photo taken with a mother and her child, and although the sheer number of people is daunting, she is trying to look calm and she’s doing it well.

She is, after all, here to work. Bassingthwaighte is an ambassador for the Vicks Breathe For Life program and has travelled to Bangladesh to see how the program, which operates in conjunction with Save The Children, works. The program aims to reduce the number of children in Bangladesh who die of pneumonia. About 19 per cent of the country’s 161 million people die of the preventable disease every year.

Bassingthwaighte hopes that by using her profile she can raise awareness and donations in Australia.

“I couldn’t say no”

Bassingthwaighte is fun and self-deprecating and, as I learn over the next few days, she is good with children. She says she has never done anything like this before and decided to because she felt there was more to life and she wanted to do something that satisfied her soul.

“Being a mum [to 18-month-old daughter Harper], I couldn’t say no to this. I couldn’t imagine not being able to treat my daughter for any illness, so I want to help.”

We are ushered into the hospital waiting room, which is teeming with mothers and ill children. It’s oppressive and overwhelming; every inch of space is taken up and every mother is desperate to have her child seen to.

The reality is many of them may not be. We are then led into the ward where children with pneumonia are being treated. Old iron beds with flaked green paint are lined up in rows, with rudimentary drip poles attached to each. This hospital is a progressive one: it allows just one child per bed, unlike most hospitals in the country. Each child’s mother stays with the child for the duration of their visit, and the hospital provides a meal for each.

Bassingthwaighte is taken to meet an eight-month-old child who is battling pneumonia, tuberculosis, malnutrition and an unidentified third infection. She is tiny and shaking, and as Bassingthwaighte sits and strokes the child’s arms, she hears the mother’s story via a translator.

“This baby was suffering from fever for five months before she was brought to hospital,” we are told.

“Why did they wait so long?” Bassingthwaighte asks.

“Because they could not afford to make the journey,” is the reply. Bassingthwaighte swallows and nods. I ask her how she feels about that, especially given her own daughter is safely asleep in the comfort of her suburban bedroom back home in Australia.

“It’s one thing to see a child who’s sick and can’t be treated, but it’s another to see a child who can be treated but isn’t because they can’t afford it. That’s insane.”

Access to treatment

Dr Samir Saha, head of macrobiology at the hospital, tells us that every day by noon, the hospital is full and has to turn people away. He doesn’t know if they are able to access treatment elsewhere as there is no system to link this hospital to any of the others. There are only five paediatric hospitals in the country and this is the largest, at 560 beds.

At this hospital alone, each year, 13,955 children are admitted, and of those, 3378 have pneumonia. Of those children, 136 will die, often because the illness is advanced by the time the child arrives at hospital. The average stay at the hospital is about five days, and 90 per cent of the patients are under five years old.

“Only about 27 per cent of mothers realise their child has pneumonia,” Saha says. “If we can keep them alive for the first 48 hours, they will usually be fine. The treatment success is very good if they are coming in on time. Even in the community pneumonia is simple to treat.”

This is the part Bassingthwaighte struggles to come to grips with: how simple it is to prevent these children from dying.

“I can’t get my head around the guilt I feel. We live in such luxury. It costs on average just $17 a week for a child to stay in hospital.

“No mother should see their child die of pneumonia. Ever. It’s so insane that they could not afford to bring their baby in. That is why community health care is so badly needed.”

Thankfully, the next day, we see that community health care in action on an island called Bhola, where Bassingthwaighte meets a woman whose daughter has cough and cold symptoms.

Bhola has been heavily affected by natural disasters and, as a result, has received good aid. A Save The Children community health worker visits regularly and today, we watch as she monitors the child’s breathing. Respiration rates are increased in a child with pneumonia and it is evident this child’s breathing is rapid. The health worker assesses her, talks to the mother and provides antibiotics. It’s a simple process that has likely saved this child’s life.

It’s a stark contrast to the day before. Here there is a feeling of hope and Bassingthwaighte is feeling an unexpected sense of joy that increases in the following days as we visit more towns and witness the Save The Children programs that will be bolstered by support from Vicks.

“I feel better than I did that first day because I’ve seen the communities pull together and I feel joy from seeing what Save The Children is doing; you can see the difference they are making. I was prepared to see more of what I did at the hospital and I’m glad I didn’t. That was traumatic. It made me angry it is happening and it made me question my own existence.”

When we visit a “courtyard session”, which is essentially a mothers’ group, it’s uplifting to see the programs actually working.

Morsheda Khanam, a Save The Children field facilitator, is teaching them everything from how to look out for pneumonia to general child health and nutrition. These sessions run monthly and Khanam says she has watched the mothers grow more enthusiastic and positive. When I ask the translator to find out if Khanam feels proud of what she is doing, she says: “When the children are sick the parents feel nervous and helpless. But with the support and information we can provide we can get the child cured and the parents are very thankful.”

What I’ve learnt

Bassingthwaighte says: “The women we have met are the most inspiring people I have ever come across. I look up to them because they do a job many of us wouldn’t be able to do. What an amazing world we live in – among the devastation are men and women willing to change people’s lives.

“I’ll come back from this a better version of myself. I don’t want to take life for granted.

“We can all make a difference. If you want to stop children dying for no reason, visit the Vicks Australia Facebook page. Like it and they will make a donation. Buy a Vicks product and they will give money to Save The Children – I can tell you first-hand they are making a huge difference. Donate to charity, volunteer your time. Anyone who gets the chance to do this should.

“I’m one little piece in this puzzle, but I guess all it takes are lots of little pieces to link us all together and make a change. There’s nothing too little. If we all did something small, the world would be a better place.”

What you can do: Like the Vicks Australia Facebook page www.facebook.com/VicksAustralia and a dollar will be donated for every “Like”.

View Gemma’s incredible behind-the-scenes photo gallery,  as well as exclusive video coverage of Natalie Bassingthwaighte in Bangladesh.

Read our fact sheet on pneumonia.

Source: Body + Soul

Nat spoke to The Morning Show’s Larry and Kylie via satellite this morning, about her work in Bangladesh with Save The Children as ambassador for Vicks Breathe for Life project. Watch the interview below:

Today it was announced via Vicks Australia’s official Facebook page that Natalie will be the ambassador of their Breathe for Life Project which launches on April 1 in conjunction with Save The Children.

The Breathe for Life Project is a new, global initiative which aims to prevent and treat childhood pneumonia in developing countries. Every 20 seconds a child dies from pneumonia. That’s 4,320 young lives lost every day from a preventable, treatable disease that receives very little attention.

From April 1 2012, for every Vicks product sold in Australia and New Zealand and for every ‘LIKE’  on their Facebook page, Vicks will make one donation to Save the Children. This donation will fund essential work to combat pneumonia for children under five years old in Bangladesh.

Save The Children will be the beneficiary of the donations raised from the Vicks Breathe for Life Project and will help to train an additional 1,600 health workers and village doctors who will ensure that a full programme is implemented including:

• Prevention: By reaching an additional 270,000 mothers and caregivers in remote Bangladesh communities, the Vicks Breathe for Life Project aims to increase awareness of the early warning signs of pneumonia in children and provide essential information on preventative techniques.

• Diagnosis: By increasing the number of trained health workers and village doctors, the Vicks Breathe for Life Project will ensure that 135,000 additional children will have access to healthcare. These health workers and village doctors are critical to diagnosing and treating pneumonia.

• Treatment: The treatment for severe pneumonia is a prompt, full course of antibiotics. Through the Vicks Breathe for Life Project, an additional 75,000 children will be treated for pneumonia through life-saving antibiotics, oxygen and other critical treatment.

Natalie recently went on a journey to Bangladesh and saw first hand how the program works. You can follow Nat on her journey through Vicks Australia’s official Facebook page, as well as read her story in the upcoming issue of Body + Soul magazine, which comes free with the Sunday paper.

Do your part right now and head over to Vicks Australia’s official Facebook page and click ‘LIKE’ and be sure to share the page with your friends!

King and Queen of Moomba, Harry Kewell and Natalie Bassingthwaighte, wave at onlookers during the Moomba Festival Parade today. The 2012 Moomba Parade is themed “Melbourne is delicious,” with floats, music, local community groups and performers taking part.

“I CAN’T believe it,” Natalie Bassingthwaighte declared when she heard she and Harry Kewell would be Moomba monarchs.

Bassingthwaighte told the Herald Sun: “I’ve been in Melbourne for eight years now and I definitely feel like Melbourne is where my home is. It’s where my heart is. My daughter was born here, I got married here and I feel a real connection …

“So being given the title of queen is an incredible feeling, it’s lovely.”

The TV favourite and singer lives in Melbourne with her husband, Cameron McGlinchey, and their daughter, Harper.

She said being the mum of a toddler made her appreciate the free family entertainment and all the activities offered at the four-day festival on next month’s Labor Day weekend.

“A million people came last year. It definitely shows the spirit of Melburnians for sure, and even back in 2006 I had such a wonderful time to see so much joy on peoples’ faces,” she said.

“To be a part of it at this stage where it has grown so much is just an honour.”

Full article over at the Herald Sun.