Ah, you wonder. What’s that? Well, from their respective websites:

Comic Relief:

Our vision is ‘a just world free from poverty’.

Our mission, thanks to our comedy heritage and the fantastic relationship we enjoy with the BBC, is ‘positive change through the power of entertainment’.

And our biggest tool, in trying to achieve these two goals, is the ability to inspire people across the whole country especially those who don’t normally do charity – to do charity.

And Red Nose Day (RND):

Red Nose Day is, quite simply, a day like no other! We take some fantastic fundraising in schools, offices and homes across the land, mix it with the nation’s favourite celebrities getting up to all kinds of mischief, sprinkle a new Red Nose (or three!) across the entire UK and add a cracking night of comedy on BBC One to make Red Nose Day the phenomenon it is.

If you are intrigued further, I highly suggest going through the nifty flip-book style storyline of RND’s ‘Story So Far’.

One of the main goals (emphasised this year – there are many things Comic Relief as a charity help towards all year round) is to raise money towards putting a stop to the malaria crisis in Africa. You’ve only got to see a short clip of one of the many films made about parents who are watching their babies and children die from malaria, and you’ll feel just how serious this is.

The mind boggling thing about it all is that malaria is something easily preventable. Something we (the developed world) don’t even have to think about, yet is something that kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds. I don’t think I’m the only one who literally gets wet eyes even thinking about that for a moment.

I’m not writing this blog post to… well, bring sadness to your day. Red Nose Day has always been something I’ve always enjoyed being a part of since I was old enough to understand what it meant. I thought I would take this time to share what I’ve done for it today (admittedly, not much, but it’s better than nothing) and to also help spread the word just that little bit further.

So I first decided to follow one of Red Nose Day’s twitter accounts (they have a number of them for different things). This was to mainly follow  how the Red Nose Climb of Mount Kilimanjaro went.

Then tonight, via the very useful BBC iPlayer I managed to watch the documentary about the climb as a whole and it immediately made me want to donate.

And I did. £30. I know it’s not much, but the point is that if everyone gives then it amounts to quite a lot. I then gave another £1 for a red nose to be added to an uploaded photo of my choice. I believe this is the first year ‘digital noses’ have been available – usually you buy a physical round red nose to wear during the day.

I then ‘donated’ my Facebook status to RND, to be updated by their page as they choose.

All in all, small actions, by one (small?) person but still completely worthwhile.

One of the reasons Comic Relief and Red Nose Day is something I love is simply because it’s making a difference in the world by making ‘ordinary’ folk give through laughter. And I love laughter.

@ 23:06 Friday 13th the total money raised was standing at £32,802,411. Wow.

Update @ 21:53 Saturday 14th the total for Red Nose Day itself was £57,809,938. I’ve also given a bit more money by downloading £10 worth of singles from the top 40 on iTunes. (25p from a 79p song in the top 40 will be donated from iTunes to Comic Relief – amongst donations from other downloads as well).

To those that aren’t in the know, this is just a short clip of a fake documentary regarding flying penguins! Honestly, if you have 1 minute and 31 seconds to spare you really should give it a go.

I realise April Fools Day was a long time ago now… but still. Just watch it already!