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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Entertainment
Surena Chande

BBC Children in Need 2021 launches appeal with Love Island's Laura Whitmore, Joe Wicks and more

Children in Need is back for 2021 and this year's fundraising campaign features a whole host of celebrities coming together to back the cause.

Stars including fitness and YouTube exercise guru Joe Wicks MBE, along with Love Island host Laura Whitmore.

Read more: Corrie spoilers as several lives in danger with a collapsed sinkhole

The BBC charity works to help disadvantaged young people and keep children safe.

Other famous faces featuring in the Together, We Can campaign include singers Sophie Ellis Bextor and Ella Henderson, I'm A Celeb winner Giovanna Fletcher, rappers Professor Green and Lady Leshurr, and presenters Katie Piper and Ade Adepitan.

In a short film, Laura Whitmore said: "Children and young people across the UK are currently facing a multitude of challenges, including illness, poverty, mental health problems, isolation, loneliness and social injustice, but there is always hope, and there is always kindness.

"Please do all you can to help make a difference this year, I promise you it will lead to amazing things for children and young people who really do need our support. Together, we can change young lives."

Pudsey Bear is the mascot for BBC's Children in Need (Neil Mockford/FilmMagic)

The celebrities all donned the 2021 t-shirts and yellow Pudsey ear headbands for the shoot, which also included radio DJ Rickie Haywood-Williams, broadcaster and journalist Anita Rani and presenter Ore Oduba

While Professor Green, whose real name is Stephen Manderson, said: "When I was a kid, the phrase 'mental health' wasn’t something that you heard anywhere.

"There was no help really, and I didn’t know how to ask for it because I didn’t really understand what I was feeling myself.

"You are resilient and you are strong. Open up and tell someone how you’re feeling. Do not suffer in silence. Never suffer in silence."

While the campaign has begun, the annual telethon is being held on BBC One on Friday, November 19, 2021.

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