Star-studded line-up launches Red Nose Day to Cure Kids

Star-studded line-up launches Red Nose Day to Cure Kids!

Cure Kids' flagship campaign - Red Nose Day to Cure Kids - is underway with a star-studded line up of international icons helping to raise vital funds for child health research.

This year promises to be the best Red Nose Day yet, with many influential Kiwis passionately involved in the August 1 - 24 campaign.

International superstars, Flight of the Conchords, have written and recorded a song especially for Red Nose Day and Cure Kids. This new single will be unveiled during the television extravaganza Red Nose Day: Comedy for Cure Kids, screening on TV3 from 7:30pm on Friday 24 August.

And Cure Kids can now reveal Red Nose Day has the backing of the NZRU and All Blacks, with three players - Sonny Bill Williams, Kieran Read and Luke Romano - fronting the initiative. Plus, for the first time ever, the All Blacks team will feature in a series of skits as part of Red Nose Day Comedy for Cure Kids.
Having fun whilst raising funds is the over-arching theme of this year's event, so the charity is also launching a state-of-the-art Facebook app that it encourages donations in return for laughs from footage featuring All Blacks, comedians and well-known TV faces.
"We are incredibly excited by the calibre of stars who have given us their valuable time and we are so grateful for their passion and drive to help us raise awareness of what Cure Kids does" says Cure Kids CEO Vicki Lee.

"It's humbling and inspiring to know our mission to improve the health of children through research and its outcomes resonates with all of New Zealand - from international names giving us so much of their time and backing, through to schools in every community holding fundraising events, putting on a red nose and being silly for a very serious cause."

Steve Tew, CEO New Zealand Rugby Union said: "We're firmly behind Cure Kids, the official charity of the All Blacks and NZRU, and excited to support them for Red Nose Day. It's great to back an organisation whose support of research provides hope to many New Zealand children battling a range of illnesses."

TV3 Head Of Drama & Comedy, Rachel Jean, adds: "Television is uniquely able to bring us together as a community, and with Comedy for Cure Kids, the TV3 comedy community is delighted to be supporting an enormously important cause."

Play a part in Red Nose Day to Cure Kids

WATCH Red Nose Day: Comedy for Cure Kids
TV3, August 24, 7.30pm

TV3's Red Nose Day: Comedy for Cure Kids promises to be an unmissable night of television. The cream of New Zealand comedy has banded together, all in the name of a good cause. Jeremy Corbett and Paul Ego will play hosts on the night and will be joined by a wealth of TV3 comedic faces including the stars of Would I Lie to You? and Jono and Ben at Ten.

The evening also includes New Zealand's best-loved family from Outrageous Fortune - with Robyn Malcolm, Antonia Prebble, Siobhan Marshall and more reuniting to add some West humour to the night.
Bringing everyone together has taken months of work by event director Brooke Howard-Smith, who says: "Red Nose Day in the UK is one of the world's biggest fundraisers, raising over 100 million pounds last year. So the bar's been set pretty high, but a great combination of Kiwi comedy and generosity will no doubt see us raising a significant amount for this great cause!"

TV3 Head Of Drama & Comedy, Rachel Jean, adds: "We hope you'll join us on the 24th for an evening of hilarious, heart-warming entertainment with TV3's best loved comedians - and some very special guests - and help us to help Cure Kids."

When the Flight of the Conchords were approached to take part they were immediately inspired by Cure Kids work. To help raise funds for the charity they have written an original song that will premiere on the night.

Seats for the filming of Red Nose Day: Comedy for Cure Kids are not available to the public, but Cure Kids will put up two tickets for auction on Trade Me at midday on Monday, August 6, with proceeds going to Cure Kids. The auction will close at 8pm on Monday, August 19, 2012.

HELP raise vital funds by picking up one of these:

You can pick up Red Nose Day for Cure Kids merchandise at your local Paper Plus or Take Note store, Harvey Norman, Pumpkin Patch, Avis Rent a Car or Budget Rent a Car and Mico Plumbing & Pipelines.

Red Nose Day merchandise includes;

• red noses
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• car and truck noses
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• wristbands
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• bookmarks
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• mobile phone screen wipes.

New Zealanders can also make a $3 donation by texting CURE to 933, or making a larger donation by phoning 0800 CUREKIDS (0800 2873 5437) or by going to curekids.org.nz.

About Red Nose Day to Cure Kids

• Red Nose Day to Cure Kids is a national campaign celebrating our communities and embracing the light-hearted Kiwi culture whilst raising funds to invest in medical research into children's life-threatening illnesses.
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• Red Nose Day was created in the UK in 1988. Red Nose Day was first held in NZ in 1989.

About Cure Kids

• Cure Kids aims to invest 100% of the public's donations into research, with the aim to improve those children's quality of life and prolong their life whilst ultimately searching for a cure.
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• Approximately one child in 30 in New Zealand, roughly one in every classroom throughout the country, lives with a life-threatening illness or genetic malformation.

Cure Kids - In Numbers


$29 million - invested by Cure Kids into child health research to date

600 children are born with a heart defect in New Zealand every year. Cure Kids funded research has had a world-first breakthrough with hole in the heart babies and continues to fund research into childhood heart disease.

30-plus is now the life expectancy of a person with cystic fibrosis thanks to research. Had they been born in the 1960s, a child with cystic fibrosis was not likely to live beyond five years of age. Cure Kids board member Professor Bob Elliott discovered a new method for testing infants for CF that has been adopted internationally.

90% is the chance of remission for children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Had they been diagnosed in the 1980s, they would have had only a 30% chance of survival. Leukaemia is the most common form of childhood cancer. Cure Kids is funding research into ways to treat the disease without the current gruelling side effects.

$2.8million, 100% of donations from the general public, was invested in research in 2011, part of a total $4.4m invested into research and retentions. Cure Kids aims to direct 100% of the money raised from the public in any year to child health medical research.

550,000 school days are lost to asthma each year in New Zealand. Cure Kids is currently funding research into a pioneering asthma treatment regimen.

$4million - is being fundraised as a capital fund to establish the fourth Cure Kids Chair of Child Health and Molecular Medicine, in Wellington. The inaugural chair is to be held by Professor Swee Tan, an internationally renowned reconstructive surgeon who researches birth defects, cancer and tissue engineering. He joins three other Cure Kids Professorial Chairs of Child Health - at University of Auckland, held by Professor Ed Mitchell, the Unviersity of Otago in Christchurch held by Professor Brian Darlow and at the University of Otago in Dunedin, held by Professor Stephen Robertson. Cure Kids funds these in perpetuity.

For more information on Red Nose Day to Cure Kids, and the research Cure Kids funds, go to curekids.org.nz

ENDS

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