DEC has now raised £44m with help of celebrity telethon
The DEC Philippines Typhoon Appeal has now raised an extraordinary £44m which includes over £90,000 raised directly from last night’s celebrity telethon at London’s iconic BT Tower.
The telethon gave supporters the chance to have their donation taken by a famous voice on the other end of the phone and also caused a huge surge in donations online and via text to give.
The DEC is extremely grateful to everyone involved in the telethon including stars such as Jamie Oliver, Andrew Marr, Radio 1’s Gemma Cairney, Alan Rickman, Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt, Allen Leech, and comedian Stephen Merchant who all cleared their diaries to answer phones at a fundraising telethon.
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is raising money to help the survivors of last week’s typhoon, which ripped through the Philippines, devastating the lives of over 13 million people. Typhoon Haiyan, which raised a storm the size of Germany, flattened homes, schools and hospitals and destroyed food and water supplies.
Jamie Oliver speaking at the event said:
“The money we are raising tonight is going to critical, critical help – we’re talking about food, clean water as a bare minimum. Thank you to all that call.”
The DEC Chief Executive Saleh Saeed said: “Last night was an overwhelming success with an unprecedented number of celebrities giving their time to take donations on the phones. We want to say thank you to all of them and to each and every member of the public who took the time to ring in to donate. Enormous thanks goes to BT who has been incredibly supportive of the appeal to help raise even more funds. However, to continue delivering essential emergency aid and to help hundreds of thousands of people rebuild their lives more money is still needed.”
Gavin Patterson, BT chief executive, said: “BT has a long history of working with the DEC and we are extremely proud to have hosted the Telethon at the BT Tower last night. No one can fail to be moved by the stories of human tragedy that the typhoon has left behind and we are really pleased that that BT staff have been able to help both in the UK and in the Philippines.”
The DEC is also extremely grateful for the support of the Sun for their fundraising campaign on our behalf which has raised an additional £400,000. The X-Factor, ITV and ITN have worked with the DEC and the Sun with profits from last weekend’s X-Factor votes and downloads going to The Sun Appeal for the DEC. Final figures are not yet available. In addition, ITN produced a special appeal with Myleene Klass which was broadcast by ITV during the X-Factor.
Stay up to date with developments in the Philippines, the emergency response and the DEC’s fundraising efforts on twitter: http://twitter.com/decappeal or on Facebook via http://www.facebook.com/DisastersEmergencyCommittee
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Notes to editors:
For further details about celebrity attendees and photos, please contact: Leslie Sinoway press12@dec.org.uk
The celebrities who took part in the telethon which were: Alan Rickman (actor), Jamie Oliver (celebrity chef), Andrew Marr (journalist / TV presenter), Joanne Froggatt (actress, Downton Abbey), Allen Leech (actor, Downton Abbey), Stephen Merchant (actor, comedian), Juliet Stevenson (actress), Laura Bailey (model), Lisa Snowdon (Capital Radio and TV Presenter), Richard Madeley (presenter), Nigel Havers (actor), Laurence Llewelyn Bowen (TV presenter), Linda Barker (TV presenter, interior design), Gemma Cairney (Radio 1 presenter), Poppy Delevingne (model), Sarah Alexander (actress, Smack the Pony, Greenwing, Coupling), Daisy Lowe (model), Fay Ripley (actress), Vanessa White (singer, The Saturdays), Nemone Metaxas (Radio 6 presenter), Shaun Keaveny (Radio 6 presenter), Adrian Chiles (TV presenter), Nicholas Owen (newsreader), Natasha Kaplinsky (newsreader), Nick Frost (actor), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (actor, Curtis Donovan in MISFITS), Santiago Cabrera (actor, Isaac Mendez in Heroes and Lancelot in BBC’s Merlin), Mark Watson (Comedian and novelist), Zawe Ashton (actress, Fresh Meat, St.Trinian's), Nick Ross (TV presenter), Owen Jones (author and commentator), Jeff Fahey (US actor, currently in West End), Jolyon Rubinstein (comedian, The Revolution), Bip Ling (Model/fashion Blogger), Cherry Healy (TV Presenter) , Jo Wood (entrepreneur), Lesley Waters (celebrity chef), Amanda Holden (actress), Caroline Flack (presenter), Frank Skinner (comedian), Gaby Roslin (presenter), Heather Small (singer).
To continue to donate people can make a donation to the DEC Philippines Typhoon Appeal on the DEC 24-hour hotline: 0370 6060900, by visiting http://www.dec.org.uk, by donating over the counter at any high street bank or post office, or by sending a cheque. Additionally they can donate £5 by texting the word SUPPORT to 70000.
The DEC brings together 14 leading UK aid charities in times of crisis: Action Aid, Age International, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Plan UK, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.
BT is a long-term strategic partner to the DEC. Day to day, BT manages the organisation’s network and phone system and when disasters such as Typhoon Haiyan strike, BT’s free MyDonate platform processes online donations quickly and securely, ensuring all money goes straight to the charity. As well as providing the phone lines for the Philippines Typhoon Telethon at BT Tower on Monday, 60 BT volunteers were manned the phones alongside the celebrities.
