Over £50 million raised by Children in Need

 

Every year since 1980, the BBC’s UK charity, ‘Children in Need’ has been raising money for disadvantaged children. Annually, ‘Children in Need’ shows on TV the telethon, which feature many singers and groups, and celebrities appearing. The program lasts 6 ½ hours with a variety of sketches or song performances. However, this year (2017), the charity’s telethon has really peaked, by earning an incredible £50,168,562. The 2017 telethon featured many great contributions such as: a teaser for season 2 of Peter Key’s sitcom ‘Car Share’; a sneak-peak at the final episode of ‘Doctor Who’ for the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi; a sketch, featuring the cast of ‘EastEnders’ doing their version of a song from the hit Broadway musical ‘Les Misérables’; a dance performance from the winner of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ 2016, Ore Oduba; and in my opinion the best one, a short 6 minute video showing a young girl called Vanessa, who is one of the many children aided by ‘Children in Need’. Vanessa’s story was the greatest aspect of the telethon (other than the grand reveal of the incredible amount they raised), as it helped to spread awareness of why these children need this support. The telethon raises money by having people texting ‘DONATE’ to them: to donate £5, people had to text to 70405, to donate £10, people had to text 70410, and to donate £20, people had to text 70420. Even though the same rules regarding amounts and the numbers themselves apply for all the texts (for the most part), there are other words people can text in like ‘RAMBLE’, ‘TEAM’, ‘GIVE’ and many others. Anybody can still currently give donations to the ‘Children in Need’ as the campaign doesn’t close until the 31st December 2017. Children in Need has frequently seen great success in terms of the amounts they have raised each year. This decade has really been impressive for the charity: in 2010 they raised £18 million; in 2011 they raised £26.3 million; in 2012 they raised £4 million; in 2013 they raised £31.1 million; in 2014 they raised £32.6 million; in 2015 they raised £37 million; and in 2016 they raised £46.6 million. 2017 however, currently marks the most amount of money ever raised by the charity in a single year. There-fore this decade they have raised a total amount of money they have raised this decade, so far has totalled to about over £245.7. Over all they have managed to raise an astonishing amount of over £800 million. This is a true testament they great things charities such as these do for those in need, and of the large amounts people are willing to give up for those less fortunate than them.