Cancer Research launches comedy fundraising event
Cancer Research is partnering with Channel 4 and enlisting celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow, Alan Carr and Davina McCall to launch a comedy fundraising event in a bid to boost donations.
The event “Stand Up To Cancer” will launch in London in September. The UK launch follows the success of the event in the US where it has run since 2008 and raised more than £100m.
A week-long series of TV programmes spanning health and entertainment content fronted by UK celebrities Carr, McCall and Channel 4’s Dr Chris Jessen will air in October and culminate in a live fundraising entertainment event.
It has been designed to galvanise the UK public into donating funds to Cancer Research. The charity will run a raft of awareness raising marketing initiatives in the run up to the event to encourage the public to raise funds in “unique and creative ways”.
Gwyneth Paltrow, who is an executive producer of the US event will help launch the UK event.
Money raised will fund UK specific research into curing and preventing cancer while 20% of donations will go towards funding collaborations between UK and US research teams.
The charity outlined plans to introduce new fundraising events to target men as its existing major fundraising events such as Race for Life predominantly target women.
The launch will also coincide with the roll out of Cancer Research’s new brand identity, which was unveiled earlier this month.
