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If you were watching the return of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway at the weekend, you will already know that this week’s challenge for ‘Ant v Dec: The Teams’ involves each team recording their own charity single! Ant and his team will be singing disco classic “Don’t Stop Moving” by S Club 7 and Dec’s team have 80’s mega hit Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ by Wham. The team who has their song downloaded the most number of times wins the challenge!

Both songs are raising money for three charities – Childline, Help the Aged and Teenage Cancer Trust and at least 44p from the cost of each download will go to charity. Each download costs 79p and you can purchase them from the ITV website- for Team Ant click here to listen to and buy the song. For Team Dec click here.

       

The downloads for the challenge will be counted at 5pm on Saturday 21st February and the winner will be announced during the show on 21st February.

As PJ & Duncan, the boys had quite a successful music career in the 90’s with the classic Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble being probably the most memorable. From listening to the charity efforts, they should definitely not give up the day jobs!

Fot just for a bit of fun and a complete blast from the past, here is the Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble video!

On February 12th, Naomi Campbell opened Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s new £4.2million research unit at King’s College London. This new research unit is dedicated to finding treatments for an aggressive type of breast cancer, triple negative breast cancer. At the opening ceremony, the supermodel spoke about her commitment to breast cancer care and was with her mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. Thankfully, the treatment she received was successful and she is now in remission.

The King’s College unit, based at Guy’s Hospital, part of the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust is one of three research being opened in the UK by Breakthrough Breast Cancer. Each of the units will focus on a specific area of breast cancer research and be associated with major cancer hospitals, units and research establishments .

Actor Joseph Fiennes, whose mother, Jennifer Lash, died of breast cancer in 1993, also added his support to the opening saying “The incidence of breast cancer in this country means that nearly all of us know someone who has been affected. I am delighted that Breakthrough is opening this new research unit which will investigate effective treatments for different types of breast cancer. I hope this research will give us a greater chance of creating a future free from the fear of this disease.”

Breakthrough Breast Cancer relies on voluntary donations to tackle the disease through research, campaigning and education and needs to raise at least £19 million a year to support this vital work across the UK.

The WSPA is working hard in with local communities in India and Pakistan to help eradicate the cruel and inhumane practice of “dancing” bears. Young cubs are caught, pierced through the nose or palate, a rope is passed through the fresh wound and used as its tether for the rest of its life.

The bears are deprived of their natural habitat, forced into unnatural behaviour and taken from village to village to “dance” providing entertainment for communities. The traditional bear owners in India are the Kalandars and they depend on the income from the bears to support their families. Public information campaigns have reduced the number of “dancing” bears seen around tourist routes in India, however, the Kalandars still have an audience in more remote communities where animal welfare campaigns have not yet reached.

WSPA research shows there are currently 150 “dancing” bears in India, a reduction from 400 in recent years. This is still too many and the charity are working with Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and Bioresource Research Center of Pakistan to increase welfare awareness programs for communities, enforce the anti-poaching laws, to help bear owners find alternative incomes and providing lifetime care for confiscated bears.

Tim Minchin, comedian and musician dedicated a song to the “dancing” bears in his UK tour called “Bears Don’t Dig on Dancing”. The video has had over 100,000 views on You Tube! The WSPA filmed thie video at the Edinburgh Fringe 2008. (Warning: does include some fruity language)

ITV’s music show The Hot Desk has come to an end and they’re now offering you the chance to bid for the actual Hot Desk! They’ve teamed up with eBay and are auctioning the desk off along with a whole host of other goodies in order to raise money for the Demelza Hospice Care For Children. Demelza is an organisation providing residential hospice care for over 450 children with life-limiting illnesses.

The Hot Desk has been signed by celebrities and the team – making it a one of a kind piece of pop history (well that’s what ITV say, we’re not so sure about that, but it would be a cool desk and a great talking point for your home!). The auction kicks off at 4pm on February 16th 2009 in the charity auction area on eBay.

Comic Relief and TK Maxx have proudly unveiled the official t-shirts for RND 09 and this year they have been designed by Stella McCartney! In 2005 TK Maxx joined up with Comic Relief to raise money through the sales of the official RND t-shirts and staff fundraising efforts and to date TK Maxx have raised over £3,000,000!

This year the Stella McCartney designed t-shirts have an iconic theme to them – you can choose from the Beatles, Morecombe & Wise, Madonna and Bunny for the kids. 2009 is another first for the t-shirt as they are now 100% organic, Fairtrade certified cotton. Sourced from cotton co-operatives in Senegal and Burkina Faso the t-shirts have been produced entirely in Africa, benefiting the communities involved, ensuring the spirit of Comic Relief is realised.

When you buy one of the RND 09 t-shirts, depending on which one you buy either £3, £5 or £8 will go directly to Comid Relief. The official RND t-shirts are available exclusively at TK Maxx and the Red Nose Day website.

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