The Million Pound Charity Drop

13 September 2012

The specials transmitted throughout the Olympic Games and featured Vic & Bob, Natalie Cassidy & Frankie Cocozza, Sara Cox & Alan Hayden Jones, Jonathan Edwards & Colin Jackson, Professor Green and Big Lew, Mark Foster and Rachel Riley, Joe Swash & Jessica Jane Clement, Debra Stephenson & Jon Culshaw, Martin & Roman Kemp, Steps, Dr Dawn & Dr Christian, Made in Chelsea's Hugo & Binky, Ade Adepitan & Iwan Thomas, Dave Berry & Lisa Snowdon, Jedward and Stuart Broad & James Anderson. The shows were produced by Remarkable Television, an Endemol Company.

Syeda Irtizaali, Entertainment Commissioning Editor said: "In collaboration with the Channel 4 Paralympics team, we included a number of charities that don't get quite as much attention so the money raised would really make a difference. We're hugely proud to have played our part in what has been an amazing summer for UK."

The charities that will benefit are: Aspire, British Blind Sport, British Ex-Services Wheelchair Sports Association, British Paralympic Association, CP Sport, Dwarf Sports Association, Get Kids Going, Go Kids Go, Panathlon, Riding for the Disabled Association, Special Olympics Great Britain, Sportability, SportsAid, WheelPower

The new series of The Million Pound Drop returns on Friday at 9pm with C4's The Last Leg's Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe playing as a pair for paralympic charities. London 2012 medal winning athletes Greg Rutherford and Louis Smith will also join host Davina McCall in the new series. The Million Pound Drop mobile app has also hit over 1 million downloads just 3 months after its launch.

 

Notes to Editors:

Aspire:  Aspire Grants helps people with spinal cord injuries buy essential equipment that they could not otherwise afford. We've helped purchase lightweight wheelchairs that give people back their independence, assistive computer technology to make the return to education and employment possible and specialist sports equipment from basketball wheelchairs to hand-cycles. The money from the Million Pound Drop will help fund this life-changing Programme, ensuring that many more people with spinal cord injuries have the independence and opportunities that most of us take for granted. www.aspire.org.uk

British Blind Sport: British Blind Sport is the leading voice for sport for the visually impaired (VI) community across the UK.  BBS encourage VI people to participate in sport at all levels from ‘grassroots' to Paralympic representation.  The charity develops a wide variety of new and existing opportunities for blind and partially sighted adults and children across the sporting spectrum. In addition, they provide a range of services related to increasing participation and independence in sport and recreation; to develop confidence, reduce isolation, grow a network of support and friends, raise fitness levels and of course, progress pathways to Paralympic success.  The monies received from the Million Pound Drop will be used to further enhance their youth development programme and specialist coaching resources. www.britishblindsport.org.uk

British Ex-Services Wheelchair Sports Association www.bewsa.org

British Paralympic Association www.paralympics.org.uk

CP Sport: CP Sport helps people with cerebral palsy fulfil their potential through sport. We provide people living with a physical disability the opportunity to discover a range of sports - raising hopes, aspirations and helping people to live healthier happier and more independent lives. Every penny of the money from the Million Pound Drop will help us to find ways to satisfy this increasing demand so that young people with cerebral palsy are going to have the sporting chances they crave. www.cpsport.org

Dwarf SportsAssociation www.dsauk.org

Get Kids Going www.getkidsgoing.com

Go Kids Go: have been running wheelchair skills training for young wheelchair users since 1990; training designed to enable independence and to help ensure that the young people are able to reach their full potential. Ade Adepitan MBE, the TV presenter, learnt wheelchair skills with us as a young man and is now a patron of Go Kids Go. www.go-kids-go.org.uk

Panathlon: provide mini-paralympic type sports events for severely disabled children - but at the very grassroots level - not elite performers. Monies raised it will help to provide specialist sports equipment, coaching funds and competitions for a thousand young disabled people.
The donation from C4 Million Pound drop to us is exactly the sort of "legacy" that will help disabled children get in to sport. www.panathlon.com

Riding for the Disabled Association www.rda.org.uk

Special Olympics Great Britain Special Olympics GB (SOGB) is the largest organisation providing year-round sports training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities (also known as learning disabilities) across the country. The programme aims to transform the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and their families through the power of sport. www.specialolympicsgb.org.uk

Sportability www.sportability.org.uk

SportsAid SportsAid helps talented disabled and non-disabled athletes by giving them cash awards during the defining early years of their careers. At the London 2012 Paralympic Games these athletes won two-thirds of Great Britain and Northern Ireland's medals. To ensure the next generation enjoys the same level of support, SportsAid will use this donation to help young disabled athletes who show that they have the commitment and potential to succeed. It will help them with the costs of training and competing so they can achieve their ambitions - whether to compete at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, the next summer Olympics in Rio or beyond. After the best Paralympic Games ever and with this area of SportsAid's work growing significantly in recent years, this support will have a lasting benefit on the future of disability sport in the UK. www.sportsaid.org.uk

Wheelpower www.wheelpower.org.uk