Byrne
MARTHA BYRNE (Lily Walsh, As the World Turns) has been active in helping to support the work of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for many years. And this year she joined a number of other daytime stars in donating their collection of 'red carpet' gowns to help raise funds for their favourite charities. (And kudos to Barbara Bloom, vice-president, daytime for CBS Entertainment, for coming up with the idea).
"I'm very excited about this," Byrne said. "A lot of worthy organisations (besides St. Jude) are going to benefit from the money that will be raised by auctioning off these magnificent gowns.
"When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. We wear them to a big event, like the Daytime Emmys, and millions will see them in photographs and on television. And then they get hung away in garment bags and are rarely brought out into the outside world again. But here they're going to be bought by people who will enjoy two wonderful experiences: They'll be able to own a gown worn by a favourite star, and they'll have the joy of knowing that they've helped in the fight to make a lot of people well."
Whenever her schedule allows, Byrne goes to St. Jude in Memphis, Tenn., and talks to the dedicated people on the medical staff, to the children and to their parents.
MOMS AND DADS ARE VERY BRAVE
"As a parent myself (Byrne has two young sons with her husband, Officer Michael McMahon), I think the moms and dads are very brave the way they hold on to hope even when some of them know there is no hope and that their child will die. Yet they remain strong," Byrne says, "I think partly because their children are so hopeful."
And, indeed, she notes, for some there may be good reason to hope.
