THE HUGELY POPULAR Christmas FM, which brought listeners festive songs over the last six weeks, has announced it raised €214,000 for its chose charity Sightsavers.

The funds raised will help over 5,000 people avoid a life of blindness as Sightsavers provides them with sight-restoring operations.

The figure means that Christmas FM has raised almost €1.5 million since its inception in 2008 for charities such as the ISPCC, Barnardos, Simon, Age Action, Aware, Make-A-Wish Ireland and Focus Ireland.

Garvan Rigby, co-founder of Christmas FM, says the station is delighted with the figure.

“We are delighted with the success of this year’s fundraising campaign and would like to thank everyone who helped to make this possible – we are absolutely thrilled with the figure raised and are delighted to have reached our milestone target of €200,000! We would like to thank all our loyal listeners for tuning in and donating so generously to this year’s chosen charity, Sightsavers. We would also like to thank this year’s premier FM sponsors Cadbury and Dunnes Stores, and the Ballsbridge Hotel.”

Ciara Smullen, Head of Major Giving at Sightsavers Ireland added that the figure will help thousands of people.

“Christmas FM listeners, are changing the lives of thousands of people by giving the gift of sight.”

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) grants Christmas FM its annual 30-day temporary sound broadcasting license which enables the station to broadcast on a range of frequencies throughout the country.

Christmas FM is funded through sponsorship and run each year by more than 100 volunteers on-air, who devote hundreds of hours of their time.

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