Rise to the challenge with Sport Relief
for its fourth outing and this year it has moved from July to March. So far the joint venture between the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú and Comic Relief has raised around £50m and we are hoping to greatly add to that amount in 2008.
Once again the focus of the campaign will be the and we will be televising many of them in a special programme on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú ONE (Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú TWO in Scotland) on Sunday, 16 March at the end of, what we hope will be, a special weekend of fundraising and entertainment across all areas of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú.
We first came up with the idea of the Miles in 2004, as we wanted to create a mass participation fundraising activity that anyone could do, regardless of age or ability. That is why we deliberately emphasise that it is about taking part rather than being competitive.
As 2004 was the 50th anniversary of barrier, we decided to try and celebrate that by staging large Sport Relief Miles in each of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú’s 14 Nations and Regions.
That first year saw four of them televised on Grandstand and is best remembered for the now iconic image of in London. in different areas of the UK so we decided to try and double or treble that in 2006.
What we hadn’t quite expected was the level of participation from schools and sports clubs. At the end of the Sport Relief Mile show on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú One in July 2006 our presenter, John Inverdale, was able to announce the figure from Comic Relief that .
That staggered us but, having looked at the images from all around the UK, it is clear that for many people they are able to enjoy the whole fun and mass participation experience of celebrated events such as the London Marathon, without having to complete the full distance!
It was really inspiring to see the effort that the milers had put in. I can’t think of another event that I have been involved in during my 19 years in the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú that has seen so many men, women, wheelchairs, children, pushchairs, dogs, babies and daleks all alongside each other at the same event - all there to raise money for the good causes that Comic Relief supports.
This year is staging 23 flagship events and will have cameras at all of them on 16 March. They will be in London, Brighton, Southampton, Bristol, Plymouth, Cardiff, Swansea, Belfast, Coventry, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Hull, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Ipswich and Norwich and we hope to have more than 200 other official Local Miles as well.
In 2006 David Walliams captured both the headlines and the imagination of the nation when, after many months of training, and fulfilled an ambition that he had held since childhood.
It was an astonishing challenge to himself, but he rose to it and helped raise £1m in the process. We are hoping this year that once again people will sign up, get sponsored and .
How many will take part this year? Can we get closer to a million milers? How much will we raise?
That is down to all of us to try to achieve - we'll know the answer in a couple of months time.
If you would like to get involved and sign-up, or see where the raised money is spent then please go to . We are really keen to hear about Miles or other events that you are doing, so please send us your photos, blogs and ideas throughout the campaign.
