Dancing for Comic Relief

With only two minutes to go until the Comic Relief Danceathon, I was still in the kitchen turning my wrinkly old veg into something that resembled soup.  There was an urgency in the air to make it to the television in time and be ready for Claudia Winkleman to launch the finest dance leaders into my living room, via the magic of the BBC Red Button.  Equally, having been away talking rubbish for most of last week, I needed to rescue my organic assets before my husband banished them to the compost bin.

A speedy whizz of the blender, and with a five second commute through the hallway, it was time to exit the kitchen for a six hour stint in front of the TV, embarrassing myself for money while remotely supporting the fabulous Team Honk, with whom I had originally hoped to join at Wembley.  Check out these moves!

But could I dance for six hours?  Perhaps if I’d been with other members of Team Honk, yes I’d have been more confident, but having been ill for much of February, I had doubts.  But at least bopping away at home, I could mostly dance like no-one was watching, which certainly had its advantages when trying to keep my two left feet in synch from the very start with 70s Disco.

And thanks to the fantastic dance leaders and updates from the floor by members of Team Honk, each hour passed by quickly and despite very achey legs half-way through, WAHEY, this dancing diva made it to the very final second.

That’s SIX HOURS of non-stop dancing, during which I fear I took the actual Dancing Diva session at 3:30pm quite literally.

Huge thanks to everyone who sponsored me and weren’t put off by my sponsor nagging tweetathon.  We’ve got £200 in the pot, helping Team Honk’s total reach £29k at the time of writing.

Comic Relief has captured my imagination ever since my student days when I hosted a fundraising party for the first ever Red Nose Day in 1988.  But it’s only since I started The Rubbish Diet and became aware of the environmental impact of consumption and waste on developing countries have I become more determined to support charities like Comic Relief.

Whether it’s putting money to good use in education, innovation or infrastructure internationally or supporting vulnerable people in the UK, the charity makes a great impact that creates lasting change, helping to lift people out of poverty.  And today, whilst joining in the discussion with Emma Freud on BBC Suffolk, it was totally awesome to hear her announce to presenter Mark Murphy that Comic Relief is hoping to break through its £1 billion milestone during Friday’s Red Nose Day.

What an an amazement achievement!

And I’m delighted to be part of Team Honk’s massive fundraiser this year, helping to raise as much cash as we can.  What a fantastic team!  And it’s not too late to top up our collection pot.  If you can help us beat £30k it would certainly aid my dancing-induced painathon and cheer all those fantastic bloggers who were throwing their shapes at Wembley.

Just pop along here >>> http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/karencannard

AND THANK YOU!

Oh, and by the way, that soup was very much worth the emergency wrinkly veg rescue!  The tomatoes gave it a hint of red and by the sheer fact it squirted out the of the lid when I switched on the blender, narrowly missing my head, it felt like the most appropriate start to a Comic Relief fundraiser.