Celebrity fundraising round-up for February 2018
Melanie May | 13 February 2018 | News
Celebrity support can provide charities with a real boost. Here’s a selection of the activity going on this Spring, including Great British Bake Off stars running the London Marathon for charities including Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, and Gerard Butler lending his support to Scotland’s Kiltwalk.
I'm running the London Marathon in April as part of a specially created GBBO Bakers' Dozen to raise money for GOSH. Oh my. Send help in the form of hard cash! https://t.co/2OE2sUTE3J
— Kate Henry (@Treaclebakes) January 16, 2018
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Great British Bake Off stars & GOSH
Thirteen stars of The Great British Bake Off (GBBO) will swap their aprons and cake tins for running kit for the 2018 Virgin Money London Marathon on Sunday 22 April, raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH), Macmillan and World Vision. The Baker’s Dozen features some of the top bakers from the first seven series including 2013 winner Frances Quinn, 2014’s fashion designer-turned-foodblogger Chetna Makan, 2014’s Kate Henry, and 2016’s Selasi Gbormittah and Jane Beedle.
Emma Thompson & Helen Bamber Foundation
Emma Thompson has collected a cheque for £500,000 on behalf of the Helen Bamber Foundation from People’s Postcode Lottery. The actor and activist is President of the Foundation, which supports refugees and asylum seekers who have experienced torture and human trafficking. She collected the cheque on 23 January 2018 at People’s Postcode Lottery’s annual Charity Gala at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. More than £93.4 million was raised for charity by players of People’s Postcode Lottery in 2017, and the organisation has announced that 32% of each ticket sale will now go directly to charity.
Conor McDonnell & WWF UK
British photographer and Instagrammer, Conor McDonnell, has become a WWF UK ambassador as the charity seeks to extend reach with the Instagram generation. As well as being a committed environmentalist, McDonnell is a well-known celebrity photographer. His shot of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s wedding in 2014 went on to become one of Instagram’s most-liked photos, with over 2.4 million likes.
"OUTLANDER star Sam Heughan has praised fans who helped raised £700,000 for blood cancer charity Bloodwise." https://t.co/7KXxTEvfqX @ScottishSun
— Blood Cancer UK in Scotland (@BloodCancerScot) January 22, 2018
Sam Heughan & Bloodwise
Hollywood actor Sam Heughan (main image), star of TV series Outlander, has thanked the thousands of fans around the world who have taken part in My Peak Challenge since its inception in 2015, as he announced that they had raised £723,275 ($1,002,419) for blood cancer research charity Bloodwise. The money raised from My Peak Challenge 2017 has entirely funded a clinical trial at the University of Oxford that is testing a hugely promising way to treat one of the most aggressive forms of blood cancer, acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
Hollywood A-lister Gerard Butler is the latest celebrity to call on fellow Scots to sign up for the Royal Bank of Scotland Kiltwalk. Are you taking part this year? It's a great opportunity to raise money for a charity of your choice! https://t.co/mYSnrXOR2i pic.twitter.com/nELfiMg6fu
— Edinburgh Chamber (@EdinChamber) February 2, 2018
Gerard Butler & Royal Bank of Scotland Kiltwalk
Gerard Butler has issued a video call asking fellow Scots to support this year’s fundraising Kiltwalk event. Last year, more than 14,000 Scots took part in the Kiltwalk helping to raise over £2.5 million for over 780 charities across Scotland. This year, The Hunter Foundation has pledged to give 40% of every donation raised, meaning that for every £100 raised by a walker, their chosen charity receives £140.
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.