Crohns and Colitis UK benefits from Facebook holiday photo campaign
Howard Lake | 10 July 2014 | News
Make-up artist Bethany Townsend has helped the Crohns and Colitis UK charity achieve international prominence by sharing photos of her sunbathing on holiday with her colostomy bags on view.
Inspired by the #nomakeupselfie campaign and the #GetYourBellyOut campaign on Facebook, she decided to show that she wasn’t embarrassed about her condition, and wanted to try to help raise funds for a cure. With support from the charity she posted her holiday photo, using the #myCCUKstory hashtag.
She explained:
Finally after three and a half years, I decided that my colostomy bags shouldn’t control my life. So when I went to Mexico with my husband in December last year I finally showed I wasn’t ashamed. Still hoping for a cure…”
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Townsend contacted the charity privately via Facebook to suggest posting the image. They posted it the next day on 21 June 2014 on their page. Within four hours it had been viewed by one million people. In the first 24 hours that had risen to over seven million. By 4 July the total had risen to over 12 million views, with over 240,000 likes and 19,000 shares.
The story has been covered around the world.
[youtube height=”450″ width=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrJv-O-LVNo[/youtube]
There is no figure yet available on the level of income raised.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.