It’s the last Friday of April, dear readers, which means Society Diary is contractually obliged to file its monthly round-up of charity sector titbits or risk losing its sweet gig as the sector’s premier anonymous columnist.
Luckily, London Marathon weekend is upon us so there are plenty of expectant runners vying to outdo each other by running in the least practical outfits they can conjure.
Take student Matthew Fullalove (presumably a Bob Mortimer creation), who is running for London-based mental health charity the Purple Elephant Project. You’ll never guess what he’s dressing up as. Clue: it’s not a green zebra.
Daddy Pig (cartoon father of Peppa) is running it too and being trained by the nation’s PE teacher Joe Wicks (almost certainly an actual man). How this cross-dimensional hook-up will play out on the day blows Diary’s mind but if Old Father Swine runs sub-four then fair play to them both. The fecundant pigtriarch is raising money for the National Deaf Children’s Society.
Then there’s Good Innovation director Ben Cohen, who will be straddling an inflatable pooch for the full marathon distance to raise money for Dogs for Good. Cohen has caused a stir in the sector by employing an AI agent called Zosia to raise money on his behalf. Like all right-thinking people, Diary hates artificial intelligence – the way it looks, smells, everything. But annoyingly, Cohen’s cunning plan seems to have worked as he has smashed through his fundraising target by raising over £2,750. Who’s a good boy?
Dolce lungo
But the marathon’s not the only fundraising event this weekend. At Chelsea old town hall Esharelife foundation will be attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the longest tiramisu.
The delicious pudding will be made from scratch at the site and will have to beat the current record of 273 and a half metres set in Milan in March 2019. Diary’s never had the pleasure of visiting Chelsea but is worried the dessert will burst out the hall’s sides and onto the surrounding environs. We might finally find the answer to John Lennon’s question of how many coffee-soaked ladyfingers does it take to fill the Chelsea town hall.
Diary commends this worthy culinary effort to wrest the record from the Italians and back to Britain, the birthplace of the tiramisu.
Rest in Greenpeace
And finally, in case you missed it, Greenpeace is selling coffins now.
The Won’t Rest In Peace Coffin is the world’s first “posthumous protest pod, built for those who refuse to go quietly” and retails at £1,699.99. Very smart of Greenpeace not to round it up to £1.7k as some might see that as too steep.
It is, of course, a hilarious jape and forms part of the organisation’s eye-catching new advertising campaign, encouraging supporters to pledge a gift in their will.
