Greg Davies and Claudia Winkleman join stars to launch Stand Up To Cancer 2025 campaign…
A host of high-profile television figures including Greg Davies, Alex Horne, Claudia Winkleman and Clare Balding are fronting the launch of Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer 2025 campaign, which returns next week with a series of celebrity challenges and a live fundraising broadcast.
The campaign, run jointly by Channel 4 and Cancer Research UK, aims to raise money for cancer research while also promoting participation in NHS cancer screening programmes.
The campaign began last night with a comedy sketch airing during The Last Leg, featuring Davies and Horne alongside Balding, Winkleman, Nish Kumar, Tom Daley, Adam Hills, Dermot Murnaghan and former UK special forces soldier Jason Fox.
From Monday 8 December, a week of televised and public-facing fundraising challenges will build towards the live Stand Up To Cancer broadcast on Friday 12 December.
Among the centrepieces will be a 24-hour endurance challenge devised by Taskmaster creator Alex Horne, taking place at Battersea Power Station from 10pm on Thursday 11 December.
Horne said he had long hoped to take part in a major fundraising spectacle, adding: “I also wanted to be a traffic warden, but I fear that ship has sailed.”
Public fundraising events will also take place at Outlet Shopping at the O2, where television personalities and social media creators will attempt live trick-shot challenges in a shop-window setting in front of shoppers.
Each successful challenge will trigger a donation, with a final stunt during the live broadcast worth £50,000. Participants include Vicky Pattison, Leigh Francis, Pete Wicks, Victoria Pendleton, Chris Hughes, Chloe Burrows, Suzi Ruffell, Maisie Adam and Max Fosh.
Clare Balding has been confirmed as an additional presenter for the live show, joining Adam Hills, Hannah Fry and Vicky Pattison.
The broadcast will also include special editions of Celebrity Gogglebox and The Last Leg, alongside live performances, personal testimonies and fundraising appeals. Babatunde Aleshe will appear as guest announcer, with guests including Strictly Come Dancing professional Amy Dowden.
Davina McCall is due to front Cancer Clinic: Live, broadcast directly from a specially created clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where viewers will follow patients whose cancer journeys have been documented from diagnosis through treatment.
As part of a renewed focus on early detection, Balding will also front a screening awareness drive in the run-up to the live broadcast, promoting a new nationwide cancer screening checker launching on Friday.
The tool aims to boost uptake of breast, bowel and cervical screening, with organisers estimating that at least 9 million people in the UK are currently not up to date with recommended checks.
Balding said she was “honoured” to join the presenting line-up, adding that the campaign played a vital role in supporting “pioneering research and the importance of prevention and early detection”.
Stand Up To Cancer UK, launched in 2012, has raised more than £113m to date and funded 73 clinical trials involving over 13,000 patients.
Research supported by the campaign includes advances in robotic surgery, AI-driven diagnostics and experimental detection methods for oral cancers.
The live Stand Up To Cancer broadcast will air on Channel 4 from 7.30pm on Friday 12 December.
