Comic Relief marks 25 years of Red Nose Day

Comic Relief stars past and present have reunited today to mark 25 years of Red Nose Day – and the 50 million lives that have been changed by the money raised. And we have given our own happy birthday message – from the top of the BT Tower!

Comic Relief founder Richard Curtis was joined by Emma Freud and Lenny Henry, alongside celebrity supporters Ben Miller, Claudia Winkleman, David Baddiel, Dermot O’Leary, Frank Skinner, Helen Skelton, Jimmy Carr, Kate Thornton and Sanjeev Bhaskhar.

Two noticeable absentees from today’s celebrity line up were Red Nose Day stalwarts Jonathan Ross and Davina McCall who are marking the anniversary from a vaccination clinic in Accra, Ghana.

Thanks to the generosity of the British public since 1988 over £600 million has been raised through 13 Red Nose Days since 1988. That money has been helping to change lives across Africa, the UK and the world’s poorest countries.

Speaking in the UK, Richard Curtis said:

“From day one the money so generously donated by the UK public has been hard at work helping to create a just world free from poverty. These days Africa is a vastly different continent to the one I visited all those years ago…but there’s still much to do, both in Africa and here in the UK. We must keep up the good work.”

Happy birthday Comic Relief!

We’ve added our own happy birthday message to celebrate 25 years of Red Nose Day – from the top of the BT Tower in central London.

25 years of improving lives

Thanks to the public, Comic Relief will have helped:

• 3 million people affected by HIV in Africa
• Provide 1 million vaccines in Africa and the world’s poorest countries
• At least 7 million people living in urban poverty in slums in Africa and the world’s poorest countries
• Assist over 1 million children in Africa and the world’s poorest countries to get an education
• Prevent or cure blindness for more than 2.4 million people in Africa and the world’s poorest countries
• 10 million people across the UK
• Set up and funded the National Domestic Violence Helpline, which has received 1.2 million calls since it was set up in 2003
• Support disabled people and their organisations to secure the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act enabling thousands of people to access services and to get real opportunities in the workplace and in education
• Half a million people with mental health problems in the last five years alone

Red Nose Day is back on 15th March. Find out how to keep up the good work at www.rednoseday.com