Christmas comes early with £5,503,065 raised by ITV Text Santa

Notes to editor

Overview of 2014 charities

Marie Curie

Marie Curie, a returning charity from 2012, provides free care for people living with a terminal illness in their own homes and its nine hospices and support for their loved ones.

The Marie Curie Helper Service is provided by specially trained volunteers who offer people with any terminal illness and their carers invaluable companionship, emotional support and practical help, completely free of charge.  For up to three hours each week, people with a serious illness and their families can rely on the support of a dedicated Helper volunteer who will visit them in their home. The Helper Service is not currently available in all areas of the UK but with the help of all the money raised from ITV Text Santa, the charity will expand this service by rolling it out to more communities across the UK.

Teenage Cancer Trust

Teenage Cancer Trust is dedicated to improving the quality of life and chances of survival for the seven young people aged 13 to 24 diagnosed with cancer every day.  Teenage Cancer Trust funds and builds specialist wards in hospitals and provides dedicated staff, bringing young people together so they can be treated by teenage cancer experts in the best place for them.  Teenage Cancer Trust wants every young person with cancer to have access to this specialist support, no matter where they live.

Traditionally treated alongside children or elderly patients at the end of their lives, young people can feel extremely isolated, some never meeting another young person with cancer.  Being treated alongside others their own age can make a huge difference to their whole experience. 

Guide Dogs

Every hour another person in the UK loses their sight, when this happens Guide Dogs is there to make sure they don't lose their freedom as well.

Guide Dogs’ amazing partnerships are changing lives every day.  Through the guide dogs service, buddy dogs and My Guide volunteer sighted guides, every moment of the day Guide Dogs is enabling people with sight loss get to where they want to be in life.

WellChild

There are thousands of children and young people in the UK living with a long-term or complex health condition.

WellChild is the national charity working to ensure the best possible care and support for all these children and their families wherever they are and whenever they need it.

They aim to help children out of long-term hospital care, and into their own homes through the care and attention of their UK-wide team of WellChild Nurses who provide practical and emotional support.  They give these families the tools and support they need to deal with their child’s illness both in the hospital and back at home once they've returned.

Alzheimer’s Society

By 2015, there will be 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK.  There is no cure but with the right support it is possible to live well with the condition.

Alzheimer's Society staff and volunteers provide over 2,000 services for people affected by dementia in our communities.  These range from Dementia Support Workers, providing practical advice from diagnosis onwards, to social activities like ‘Singing for the brain’, which enables people with dementia to express themselves and sing with others in a similar situation.

Alzheimer’s Society improves the lives of people with dementia and their carers by helping them remain part of their community for longer.

Together for Short Lives

A returning charity from 2012, Together for Short Lives is the leading charity for the UK’s 49,000 children and young people with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions and all those who help, love and care for them.  Together for Short Lives works with the UK’s 53 children’s hospice services and a range of other organisations so that every child, young person and their family has the best possible care and support whenever and wherever they need it.

Children’s hospices are all charities and rely on donations to fund the round-the-clock care given to children and their families.  The money raised during Text Santa will make a huge difference to local children’s hospice services, helping them to deliver vital care and support to families across the UK. From the moment of diagnosis, for whatever life holds, Together for Short Lives helps to ensure families make the most of their precious time together.

Text Santa background

ITV's corporate responsibility campaigns use the combined influence of our programmes, online platforms and celebrity talent, to highlight causes and make a difference. The highlight for ITV is Text Santa, which last year raised over £5.1 million for six UK charities. The charities were: Age UK, Barnardo’s, BeatBullying, British Heart Foundation, CLIC Sargent and Hospice UK. To date Text Santa has raised £15 million for 18 UK Charities since 2011.

All money generously donated by ITV viewers goes directly to the six charities. ITV directly funds all operating costs and 100% of donations get passed to the charities as soon as we receive it.  So by March 2015 your money is already helping to make a big difference.

The chosen charities, whose work was highlighted on the ITV primetime show, reported impacts such as a 2300% increase in volunteering, 3.5 million social media impressions on the night of the appeal show, and a 476% increase in traffic on websites/social media compared to the same period last year.

Visit www.textsanta.co.uk for more information.