The Phoenix April 2012

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APRIL 2012

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Taking the plunge for Sport Relief l

David Walliams took on and beat the Thames during his heroic five-day swim in aid of Sport Relief down one of the world’s most famous rivers

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avid Walliams was one of the courageous Sport Relief stars whose extraordinary feats of bravery and endurance helped this year’s appeal smash through the £50m barrier. The River Thames is about as faraway from the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean that you can get, but that did not deter Walliams from swimming its full 140-mile length in just five days – the amazing equivalent of swimming the English Channel seven times. During his week of agony, wonderman Walliams suffered sickness and injury but refused to throw in the towel even when it looked as though the last few miles were going to prove beyond him. After completing the torturous BT Sport Relief Challenge, the Little Britain star declared: “I would like to thank all those

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David Walliams on the crest of a wave during his Thames conquest

people who gave us their support and donations. I’ve seen the difference their money can make and every single person who gave can know they’ve done something very special.” The money raised through Sport Relief will soon be hard at work. The charity has

already committed to spending £20million to improve the lives of a million people living in urban slums in Africa. This includes £10million from the UK Government, which matched pound for pound £10million of the money raised by the British public that Comic Relief will

be spending on urban slums. In addition, a grant of £5million has been committed to the GAVI Alliance, which will be spent on life-saving vaccines for children in the poorest parts of Africa. This includes a £2.5m contribution from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the GAVI Matching Fund and money raised through the Bishop’s Week of Hell during which comedian John Bishop ran, cycled and rowed 295 miles from Paris to London in five days. More than one million men, women and children also took part in the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile to raise cash to change lives at home and across the world’s poorest countries. l See Page 21 for news of a Downing Street welcome for the Sport Relief celebrities including Helen Skelton, who completed a 500-mile Polar Challenge.

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