ITV’s Text Santa appeal raises record sum
Melanie May | 6 January 2016 | News
ITV’s Text Santa 2015 appeal has raised its biggest ever total at £8.5m, with money still coming in.
This takes Text Santa’s overall fundraising total to £29.5 million over the last five years. This year’s total will be shared equally among Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish UK and Save the Children to support their work both in the UK and abroad.
Text Santa 2015 kicked off on 1st December, with the #XmasJumperDay Challenge asking people to get their friends and family to sponsor them to see how many Christmas jumpers they could put on in one minute.
Text Santa Christmas Jumper Day took place on 18th December. During the day on 18th December the ITV schedule focused on Text Santa with special one-off editions of The Chase, Tipping Point, Jeremy Kyle and 1000 Heartbeats.
The appeal culminated in a three-hour ITV special hosted by a number of celebrities such as Philip Scofield and Olly Murs, which had raised £8,383,361 of the total by its end. The TV show included Richard Branson guest starring in Coronation Street, a special celebrity episode of Downton Abbey, a special celebrity Ninja Warrior UK episode to win money for the Text Santa appeal,and a number of celebrity-hosted charity films.
Peter Fincham, director of ITV, said:
“This is a fantastic achievement. I want to thank all ITV viewers and our partners who have donated so generously to the Text Santa appeal. All the money will go directly to this year’s charities Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish® UK and Save the Children and will make a real difference to the lives of those who rely on the charities’ support.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.