The have been some marathon efforts to raise money for Sport Relief down the years, now two BBC producers are turning to table tennis to help fight poverty and inequality.
Joe Bradshaw and Matt Parratt are taking part in a 24-hour continuous game at the BBC headquarters at MediaCity in Salford and are aiming to raise at least £1,000 for the biennial charity campaign.
Table Tennis England’s very own Andrea Holt, who competed at the Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996 Olympics, has been coaching the pair in preparation for the event.
Paralympic stars Ross Wilson and Aaron McKibbin have promised to make guest appearances to encourage the duo, who will also be joined by various other colleagues and celebrities at various points.
The ‘So Long Ping Pong’ challenge will be hosted on the BBC website homepage, where Joe and Matt work as producers, as well as going out live on Radio 2 and 5 Live during the 24 hours.
Joe said: “Myself and Matt will be on the table for the entire time. We both enjoy playing table tennis but neither of us have any history of playing it competitively.
“We’ve had confirmed participation from Radio 2 DJ OJ Borg, 6 Music presenter Chris Hawkins and Blue Peter’s Richie Driss. I am very confident of getting a number of other well-known people to join us as well, particularly with there being other celebrity-led events taking place at Media City on the Friday for Sport Relief.”
Click here to contribute to Joe and Matt’s challenge
The event starts at 4pm on Thursday March 12 and continue until 4pm the following day, which is the day of Sport Relief.
Sport Relief is a national campaign held every two years, encouraging ordinary people to get active and raise money through the power of sport. The money is used to fight poverty and inequality in both the UK and around the world.
It is not the first time the pair have concocted a monumental challenge for Sport Relief – two years ago they led our colleagues to climb the equivalent of the height of Everest by ascending the stairs from ground floor to fourth floor at MediaCity – a total of 116 stairs – 500 times between them.