5FM Breakfast will be supporting Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospitals' 'Heroes Unmasked' campaign with what they are calling 'Laughter for the Best Medics'. The team have partnered with Groot Schuur and the Gauteng Department of Health to give back to the nurses for their efforts during the pandemic in the form of a comedy show.

Comedian Yaaseen Barnes and Dalin Oliver will be performing in Cape Town, while Nicholas Goliath holds down the fort at Johannesburg's Ebony Park Clinic.

Listeners can expect to hear on-air interviews with all the comedians, as well as specially curated content aimed at highlighting Nurses Day. The day holds a special place in presenter Dan Corder's heart, as one of his sisters works for a government hospital as a nurse.

"She, like so many others in South Africa and abroad, has worked tirelessly to help everyone fight the COovid pandemic. We were so relieved when she was vaccinated. In conversation with her one day, we said healthcare workers deserved to be rewarded and celebrated for their efforts," says Corder.

"We realised that they could meet with relative safety because they have been vaccinated. So, I thought why not assemble some of South Africa's best stand-up comedians to perform and thank healthcare workers at their places of work on International Nurses Day," adds Corder. He says that he has reached out to Yasseen and swiftly planned for the events in both Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Groote Schuur Hospital already had their 'Heroes Unmasked' campaign going — one that's set to roll out in four phases over the next four to six months. It will see an exhibition that is launched on International Nurses Day. Additionally, there will be a photography project where staff (unit by unit over a space of three months) are photographed and will receive their own 'Hero Unmasked' portrait, which will be laminated and pinned to their PPE.

The campaign will culminate in the building of a much-needed covered staff walkway that will display the artwork and Unmasked photos of all staff. The project, in its essence, focuses on recognising and honouring healthcare workers.

Because of the need to wear masks, nobody sees smiles outside their homes; this project is designed to acknowledge the cumulative toll of hospital staff who are barred from normal human connections with patients and each other.

The 5FM Breakfast team says that it hopes the gesture will bring some much-needed laughter to the staff at the two hospitals and that nurses all over the country will feel the love as the station celebrates their efforts.

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