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PHILLIP SCHOFIELD AND ITV STARS DO THEIR BIT IN A CHRISTMAS KNIT FOR TEXT SANTA

ITV’s Text Santa is back. This year a host of ITV stars will ‘Do their bit in a Christmas Knit’ supporting the Text Santa Appeal culminating in Christmas Jumper Day on the 18th December and a three-hour star-studded TV spectacular in the evening on ITV.

This year the aim is to raise money for three charities – Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish^® UK and Save The Children.

Kicking off the festive fun is a TV promotional campaign which sees ITV stars forget their essentials. Then on the 1st December Phillip Schofield will star in #Pipknit – another tv first -and will be encouraging everyone to ‘do their bit in a Christmas Knit’ and raise funds for Text Santa.

From November 16th the ITV stars will be seen across the ITV channels but they will appear in an uncharacteristic forgetful mood. Ant in the jungle has forgotten Dec; Paddy McGuinness has forgotten his Take Me Out ‘Flirty Thirty’; Keith Lemon has forgotten to take his mic off in the loo; and Ken Barlow (Bill Roache) from Coronation Street has gone out for a walk with a lead minus his dog Eccles. Phillip Schofield has even forgotten his trousers. The one thing they haven’t forgotten though is to wear their Christmas Jumpers as the message is clear – wear your Christmas jumper and don’t forget to donate to Text Santa. The message of the different individual trailers is – whatever you do – don’t forget to ‘do your bit in a Christmas Knit’ and donate to Text Santa. The trailer will run up to the Text Santa show and Christmas Jumper Day on the 18th December.

Phillip (Pip) – in #Pipknit – will invade every show in the ITV schedule from 6am to 10pm on 1st December. He’ll be brightening up TV screens by appearing in a different Christmas jumper in every appearance. From Jeremy Kyle to The Chase to Emmerdale, Phillip will be doing his bit in a Christmas knit. But viewers will have to be eagled-eyed – blink and you may miss him. He’ll be cunningly concealed in different ITV shows and will be turning up in the most unexpected places. Viewers will be asked to join in the fun and tweet to @ITVTextSanta using #Pipknit every time they see him. If they do so within a ten minute window of his appearance they will be entered into a draw with a chance to win tickets to the main show on the 18th December or one of the jumpers Philip’s wearing throughout the day.

Phillip says: “I’m so excited about doing my bit in a Christmas knit and I get to wear a lot of Christmas jumpers throughout the campaign so I will have the ultimate Christmas jumper wardrobe! Appearing in ITV’s iconic shows throughout one day this year is a fantastic opportunity to promote Text Santa’s Christmas Jumper Day and raise donations for this year’s very deserving charities, Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish and Save The Children.”

Phillip will also be one of the presenters on 18th December in the main Text Santa show. He’ll be joined by others including Christine Bleakley, Alesha Dixon, Caroline Flack, Amanda Holden, Paddy McGuinness, Stephen Mulhern, Olly Murs and Holly Willoughby. Text Santa’s Christmas Jumper Day on the 18th will see a range of programming across ITV encouraging everyone to “do your bit in a Christmas Knit” and culminating in ITV’s spectacular Text Santa show on the night.

The fundraising has already started for many, and people can get a fundraising kit crammed with ideas from ITV.com/textsanta. Ideas for ‘doing your bit in a Christmas Knit’ include attending a Christmas quiz at a local pub in a Christmas jumper and taking part in the main event on Christmas Jumper Day by wearing a Christmas jumper and donating to Text Santa. Donate online.

The appeal hopes to inspire a whole army of fundraisers to raise more money than ever before. The money raised will go towards funding nurses and other essential workers so people affected by cancer get the support they need; granting wishes to enrich the lives of children and young people fighting life-threatening conditions and transforming children’s lives here and abroad to give hope to families in difficulty at Christmas.

Text Santa is now in its fifth year and has so far raised over £21million for UK charities. The annual appeal also helps to increase awareness of the vital work of our charity partners by using ITV’s reach to millions of viewers across the UK. 100% of the money will be shared equally amongst the Text Santa charities going directly to support their vital work. All donations to Save the Children’s international work will be matched pound for pound by the UK Government up to £5 million.

Last year, thanks to the public’s fantastic generosity, the money raised through Text Santa helped to provide 45,000 hours of specialist care to help young people fight cancer, support over 3,600 people suffering from dementia, and provide 51,650 hours of care to children and their families.

Supporting Text Santa for 2015 are appeal partners Primark, who will donate to the appeal for every Christmas Jumper sold from the 1^st December to the 17^th December.* Other appeal partners include Papa John’s, Vodafone, Twentieth Century Fox and department store Liberty.

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