Typical BBC event. Roll call of celebrities..no mention of " common people's" efforts!

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Children in Need raises £26.7m

Ahhh. As per usual the BEEB has patted itself on the back about the one good thing they haven"t ballsed up this year.

Children in need is a great event and is a great way to raise money to help kids.....but why do all the reports of efforts to fund raise always focus mainly on the celebrities?

Why does some multi millionaire singer get more praise and thanks than Mr Smith down the road who has spent all week in a bath of beans, or Mrs Brown who at 85 has made hundreds of knitted toys to sell and raise funds. The " common" folk who contribute without consideration about promting their latest film or new song, don't ever get enough recognition for their efforts.....if you don't believe me just read the report ( link above) by the BBC about the event and "spot the non celeb" fundraiser!......Mmmmmm!

In a year when the BBC has managed to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of licence payers hard earned cash compensating a Director General who did under 60 days work in the post before throwing in the towel when things got difficult ( i thought the reason people got paid vast salaries is because they are of a " high calibre"?....apparently not!) to the tune of £450'000.Then. After NOT airing a Newsnight programme about Jimmy Saviles dirty life, they try to be too quick with the next programme and, without getting their facts right, they wrongly accuse a Peer of being a paedo!......which then costs the poor old licence fee payer another £185'000 quid!

By the way....i wonder how much the ex DG of the beed donated? Nothing in the report about that is there :-/.
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Any rich people out there who want to save a Scirocco ?

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I guess that it's not a surprising fact that due to increases in the cost of...well everything really !I have had to take the decision to retire the old Scirocco to the driveway whilst I consider my options.

Running 3 cars in the UK is not a very good way of saving money, and sadly there is no real recognition for some bloke who runs a car to promote a charity......not being an MP I can't claim "expenses" for such an extravagance! :-)

Insuring the Golf TD has just cost me £500. The wife's Skoda Roomster cost almost £300 and the Scirocco (limited to 3000 miles per year) cost £150 .So having to choose which car I was going to use as my daily came down not to preference, but economy, so the Golf TD which returns a good 55mpg has now stepped into the Scirocco's shoes as my daily commuting vehicle (the Scirocco was costing me £13 per day in fuel as it could ,at best,manage approx 35-37 per gallon.

To add insult to injury I now have the Scirocco on the drive without MOT or Road Tax as they both expired in December. And to add injury to insult and injury...she has developed something of a swimming pool in her rear footwell's which has resulted in me having to remove the seats and strip back the carpets!.....and the battery keeps going flat!.......

If anyone reading this post fancies helping me keep the old girl (25 in March) on the road to continue her work with Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, please make yourself known :-)

In my experience an unused car is so much more likely to have a major breakdown than a daily drive, and i would hate that to happen to a car that has become something of a minor celebrity in the VW world.

Now.....when is the lottery being drawn again?

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If only.....

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If only there was as much money spent on finding a cure for cancer as there is spent on Televised sport events!.

Flicking through the channels you find footballers earning £70'000 per week, Formula one drivers earning £4-5 Million per year.Golfers playing a round in Morocco for a top prize of 1'361,205 euro's.
In a world were sport and entertainment pay such riches, yet the people that we trust the lives of our loved ones with,doctors,nurses ,care workers etc are so poorly rewarded by comparison, is it a surprise that modern day youngsters aspire to be singers,actors or sports people.
One day maybe far off in the future, the world may realise that if they want to save the seriously ill, feed the hungry and put a roof over the homeless, they need to re assess their love affair with celebrity and start to put more of their adoration on the souls in this world who truly do make a difference to the lives of others, and lets stop paying actors who pretend to be doctors more than real doctors...you know it makes sense!.

Patick Swayze dies of Pancreatic Cancer aged just 57

I was so saddened to hear today that the actor Patrick Swayze has sadly lost his battle with the pancreatic cancer that he was diagnosed with some months ago.

I remember many of his films during the 80's and 90's such as Roadhouse,Dirty dancing and of course the classic film Ghost.

The great thing about the guy was that he always hated the arrogant,overpaid showbiz types, he once said that he thought paying Hollywood actors huge salaries was "raping the industry and taking food out of the mouths of people".

Patrick Swayze was responsible for some of the most iconic movie scenes ever - not something many actors can lay claim to and far more importantly he worked tirelessly for charity and environmentally causes, something that so many "A" Lister's tend to forget to do when they are blessed with great success !

R.I.P Patrick.

Here are clips from a few of his films........

Notable Personalities That had (or currently suffer from) Leukaemia and Lymphoma

Following on from the post about poor Jade Goody's public story about her fight with Cervical cancer, here is a list (not definitive..so if you know others, please let me know!) of celebrities that have been affected by some sort of blood cancer:

* Paul Allen - Co founder of Microsoft

* Gene Autry - Singer/Actor

* Paul Azinger - Golfer

* Jeremy Beadle - Gag/games show host and charity fundraiser (CLL)

* Ed Bradley - CBS News Anchor (60 Minutes)

* Michael Brecker (Leukaemia) - Jazz Saxophonist

* Robin Bush (Leukaemia, age 3) - Daughter of President George H.W. Bush

* Susan Butcher (Leukaemia) - Winner of Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

* John Allan Cameron (Leukaemia, Bone Marrow Cancer) - Celtic Musician

* William Casey - CIA

* Joseph Coors - Adolph Coors Brewing Company

* John Cullen - Hockey Player

* Mark Fields - Football Player

* Andres Galarraga - Baseball Player

* Tim Garton - Swimmer

* Lynden David Hall (Hodgkin's Lymphoma) - Soul Singer

* Anthony Herrera - Actor

* King Hussein - Jordanian King

* Arte Johnson - Actor

* LeShon Johnson - Football Player

* Ray Katt - Baseball Player

* Saku Koivu - Hockey Player

* Mario Lemieux - Hockey Player

* Charles A. Lindbergh - Aviator (Spirit of St Louis)

* Joe Longthorne - Singer, Entertainer (Lymphoma)

* Jeff MacNelly - Cartoonist

* Mickey Mantle, Jr. - Baseball Player

* Roger Maris (Lung Cancer, Lymphoma) - Baseball Player

* Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Nobel Laureate

* Carrie Nye - Actress

* Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) - First Lady

* Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia) - Shah of Iran

* James Myers - Composer & Co Writer of the Hit song "Rock Around the clock"

* Mala Powers - Actress

* Joey Ramone - Musician/Singer

* Steve Reeves - Athlete/Actor

* Craig Thomas - US Senator

* Paul Tsongas - US Senator

* Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud) (T-Cell Lymphoma) - Actor (The A Team)

* Maisie Walters - Daughter of actress Julie Walters

* Gene Wilder - Comedian and Actor (Willy Wonka)

* Nikos Kazantzakis - Author of the book "Zorba the Greek"

*Terry Nutkins - TV  presenter and Animal Expert

*Nora Ephron - Writer

If you know of any more well know people who have had or currently are fighting blood cancer,let me know ! :-)

Is there such a thing as "Celebrity Cancer" ?

I am sure that we are all (unless you have lived in a cave...or on the moon, for the last few months!) aware of the tragic story of Jade Goody, the 27 year old woman who found fame on Channel 4's Big Brother reality show.
Now diagnosed a having only weeks or months to live, she and her fiancee are due to be wed on Sunday 22nd February 2009.
As much as our hearts go out to Jade, there is a feeling within the cancer community (if there is such a thing!) that the media appears to place much more emphasis and attention on people suffering from "The big C" (as the Sun so creatively put it), if they carry some sort of celebrity status.
This is not just a cheap and arrogant pop at Jade, and in fact, to be fair, she has all the reasons in the world to turn to her advantage any generosity exhibited by the press at this awful time after her mauling not so long ago (at their hands!) after the CBB "racism" fiasco, when she was pretty well given a hell of a bashing by a wide range of journalists as they extracted every last drop of "front page frenzy" in relation to the story.

This is what is posted on various websites:

http://www.whatnow.org.uk/cancer-forums/jade-goody-and-talking-about-cancer-observer-newspaper

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=993095

http://forums.itv.com/806059/ShowThread.aspx

http://www.cancerchat.org.uk/clearspacex/thread/1156

The press it appears are very selective about what they print about cancer stories,every day people are dying from the disease, some a lot poorer and a lot younger than Jade and having had a look around some of the websites on the Internet, it appears that "ordinary folk with cancer" are getting a touch fed up with the media circus that Jade's cancer fight, appears to have become at the hands of the press and sadly the only real winners being the newspapers bank balances !.