Comedienne supports Beatrix Potter fundraiser

8:50am Wednesday 2nd July 2008

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COMEDIENNE Victoria Wood is lending her support to the launch of a major new charity fund-raising competition at a Lake District attraction.

The World of Beatrix Potter attraction at Bowness is hosting a Spot the Golden Egg competition to raise money for WaterAid and give people the chance to win a specially-commissioned golden egg worth £10,000.

Jemima Puddle-duck lays 'Golden Egg'

to help charity WaterAid.

The golden egg has been ‘laid’ by Beatrix Potter’s famous character Jemima Puddle-duck to mark her 100th anniversary.

The location of the egg has been chosen by Miss Wood (pictured) and will be kept in a sealed envelope inside a safe until the competition ends. Children and adults can take part in the competition by guessing the location of Jemima Puddle-duck’s golden egg on a treasure map on display in the attraction.

They then simply need to donate £1 to WaterAid, fill in their details on the entry form and place a sticker on one of the 30,000 squares where they think the egg is hidden.

The TV star said: “I am supporting the Spot the Golden Egg competition partly because of my long association with the World of Beatrix Potter attraction and partly because I really want to support the work of WaterAid. It’s a good fun competition that’s got a brilliant prize and is helping to bring water to Malawi.”

Miss Wood has also recorded a short video to promote the competition, which will play at a number of places inside the attraction. The Golden Egg has been specially created for the competition and is made of 18 carat spun gold. It is engraved with the dates of Jemima’s centenary and has a diamond set into each end.

Andrew Cook, director of fund-raising for WaterAid, said; “I’m really pleased to be working with the World of Beatrix Potter this year. It’s incredibly important to us because this project is going to help us to provide safe water to over 40,000 people in Malawi.

“Every day over 5,000 children are dying because they don’t have access to clean water. This money will be used to buy water and sanitation in the Machingura district of Malawi.”

All the money raised will go to WaterAid and will be used for water and sanitation projects in communities and schools in Malawi, one of the world’s ten poorest countries. The winner of the £10,000 golden egg will be revealed after July 1, 2009.