Outrageous stars shine for hospice

Stella King and Shane Cortese from <i>Outageous Fortune</i>. Photo / Janna Dixon

Fancy appearing on screen with your favourite characters from Outrageous Fortune?

You will get your chance by hanging a star on a Christmas remembrance tree as part of the West Auckland Hospice's annual Light up Christmas fundraising campaign.

People can make a donation to the hospice, then write a message to a loved one on a star and hang it on a tree. Outrageous Fortune fans who donate $10 or more will be in to win two walk-on parts. The winners will appear in non-speaking parts in a scene at fictional watering hole, The Rusty Nail.

Shane Cortese, who plays Hayden Peters, said he got behind the campaign when he realised how much work hospice volunteers did.

The hospice gets just half its funding from the Waitemata District Health Board and must raise the rest. Cortese also wanted to highlight what can be a "forgotten charity".

"It's kind of like the forbidden taboo subject. It's something that doesn't get a lot of profile."

He said many people were reluctant to talk about death.

"It's like the famous old saying, death and taxes are something that just happen in everyone's life."