Red Nose Day is back on Friday 18 March, and we can't wait to get involved in the fun. This year, we're raising money as part of the Big Red Nose Day Get Together.  Were joining people up and down the UK to show that smiles have the power to change lives.Ho

Rae's story..

Rae, 46, become paralysed from the neck down following a cycling accident in 2017.

Father-of-3 on a mission to lose weight, he clipped a curb and landed on the concrete pavement face first.

The crash left him with severe facial injuries, a cracked skull and a broken neck.

He was told he would never walk again by experts at the Royal London Hospital Major Trauma Unit.

But as months went on, he slowly regained movement one limb at a time following his intense rehab at the London Spinal Injury Centre in Stanmore.  After intense rehabilitation, ‘like a Rocky movie training camp’, with the great help of his NHS team he trained himself how to walk again.

He still experiences body pains, spasms, pins and needles, burning nerves and is weaker on his right-hand side.

But his story has been nothing short of miraculous and he is ‘now living life 2.0’ – he is walking again and as part of his journey back to fitness, he took on a series of fundraising challenges to support the charities who helped him during his recovery.

He also chose to fundraise for Comic Relief as he has personal experience of several of the key areas Comic Relief fund for example:

Mental health – Rae suffered from depression and became fully aware on the power of mental health and resilience to get him through these challenges even stronger.

Child safety – Having 3 kids, his youngest at the time just being 5 and
on the autism spectrum, he could relate to the vulnerabilities of them growing up without a stable environment around them.

Poverty – Apart from the health worries, there was a huge unexpected
financial burden waiting.  Understanding how quick life can turn around from high street shopping to using foodbanks after
his injury left him unable to work.

Based on the 4 key challenges that Comic Relief supports on Red Nose Day 2021 Rae set himself the 4x4x48 challenge (4 miles. every 4 hours for 48 hours) for Comic Relief. This pretty much equals 2 marathons in 2 days with literally 5 hours of sleep over 48 hours to really test his physical and importantly mental endurance.

For Red Nose Day 2022 he is continuing his drive to support the 4 key themes Comic Relief supports and intends on doing an ‘Inspired Gym Quadrathlon 82’ at his local leisure centre, InspireAll, Furzefield, as a 'thank you' as that’s where much of his rehabilitation took place.

The four challenges represent the four different key need areas Comic Relief works to tackle - homelessness, domestic abuse, child poverty, and mental health problems.

He will Row - 10km,
Cross Train - 10km, 
Cycle - 90km and do just over a
half marathon (21.2km) on a treadmill to cover 82 miles in total!

He’s also encouraging others to get involved by running 4 exercise classes back-to-back, on consecutive days including Les Mils BodyCombat and BodyPump and Balance classes, with participants encouraged to see if they can be sponsored to attend 2, 3, or all 4 classes with all class fees and money raised going to Comic Relief.

Rae said: “Comic Relief ticks so many boxes of causes which are personal to me and my family and I wanted to help. You can help too by supporting Comic Relief and fundraising for Red Nose Day this year. For me it’s been amazing to give back to charities and help be the change after they helped me so much throughout my recovery. Small amounts, large amounts, it all adds up to make a big difference.”

However much you can spare, your donation will help tackle poverty, take action against violence and bring an end to discrimination in the UK and across the world. We're fundraising for Red Nose Day because- £5 could pay to get 20 meals to vulnerable children and families in the UK- £10 could provide 20 reading books for children in community learning centres in Northern Uganda, where free pre-school services are very limited.- £20 could provide a supportive coffee morning for families in the UK to share advice on caring for their childs mental health. Don't forget to tick the Gift Aid option, if you can, so Comic Relief can claim an extra 25% from the government.From us and everyone at Comic Relief, thank you.