We’re searching for the ultimate charity champion to inspire the nation to do good stuff.

The #givingtuesday champion search has now closed, and after a record breaking number of entries, we are excited to announce our shortlist!

  • Ali Stunt founded her own charity – Pancreatic Cancer Action – after being diagnosed herself in 2007. She now heads up a team of ten who have committed to funding £1 million of research over the next five years
  • Courtney Hughes has been delivering Christmas gifts to patients at her local hospital since she was 12. Now 18, she has collected, wrapped, and distributed over 4000 Christmas gifts to numerous charities in Oxfordshire
  • Shirley West has been raising money for British Heart Foundation for the past 34 years and is directly responsible through her branch for raising a total of £12 million
  • Paula Banks has raised more than £130,000 in aid of the Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children’s Hospital Charity, after losing her son Jack to a rare form of leukaemia when he was nine years old
  • Marilyn Nolan started volunteering in 1980 and has never stopped. She’s given over 75 pints of blood, she’s raised thousands of pounds for RNIB and she’s volunteered for over 11 years at her local junior Football Club, putting in over 3,000 hours of volunteer time
  • Leona Glennie has raised thousands of pounds for North East Sensory Services (NESS). Leona has Usher Syndrome, which means she is completely deaf and partially sighted and yet in the past two years she has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, completed a skydive and a 10k obstacle course and a half marathon
  • Jodie Connor is chair of Manchester RAG and spends all her spare time volunteering or raising money. She’s passionate about tackling homelessness in Manchester and has founded Time of the Month Manchester, an organisation to provide sanitary products to homeless women in the city
  • After losing 7 family members to cancer Gemma and Craig Scott wanted to turn their grief into energy. They have since raised over £10,000 for Worldwide Cancer Research running ten marathons across two continents, all side by side
  • Jason Jackson started the Lads Without Dads project to provide male role models to boys aged 8-18 who have no father figure at home. Having grown up without contact from his father, Jason is doing his best to ensure that someone is available to give the advice and support that he never had in his youth
  • Lucy Lintott was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2013 at the age of just 19. In January 2015, Lucy launched her website ‘Lucy’s Fight’ as a dynamic platform for her blog and fundraising campaign. She has since raised over £100,000 for MND Scotland

Our #givingtuesday champion will be chosen from this shortlist by our panel of incredible judges including our amazing winner from 2015 Andrew Davies. Andrew won the title after pledging to raise £150,000 for Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity after they supported him through a bone marrow transplant. Andrew is joined by four new faces to our judging panel, from across the media and charity world.

Our judges (l-r)

  • Andrew Davies, #givingtuesday champion 2015
  • Zoe Parkinson, Vice Magazine
  • Mika Simmons, Actress & Founder of the Gynaecological Cancer Fund’s Lady Garden Campaign
  • Paul Stanworth, BBC Newsbeat
  • and Mike Buonaiuto, CEO of Shape History

Our winner will be announced on Tuesday 1st November and will be rewarded with:

  • a £250 donation to the charity of their choice
  • the chance to tell their story to the national media
  • the opportunity to join us at the top of the BT Tower on #givingtuesday
  • PLUS, they will get the experience of a lifetime: a hot air balloon ride over the UK countryside

We can’t wait to see who wins. Good luck to everyone on our shortlist!