HAVING gained top honours in this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards, the England Cricket team together with one-time Daily Echo Star Trail finalist, the classical singer Keedie, are now aiming to hit the Christmas pop charts for six.
Their CD single of the rousing anthem Jerusalem is released today in a bid to raise funds for the victims of the Pakistan earthquake disaster.
Recorded in Faislabad with Keedie who came third in Star Trail back in 1998, the CD comes hot on the heels of the Team of the Year award and Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff's election as Sports Personality Of The Year
The proceeds from the single will go to various charities including:
Save the Children's Children in Emergencies Appeal - which helps the young survivors of the earthquake which wiped out entire villages, leaving tens of thousands dead. A Chance To Shine - which supports the introduction of cricket at British state schools, to help develop the cricketers of tomorrow.
PCA Benevolent Fund - which supports former cricketers whose playing careers have been curtailed, sometimes very prematurely by injury.
And the team need your help and support to ensure funds as raised:
In addition to raising money through CD sales, a phone line has been set up through which people can listen to the single and contribute funds.
"There is still a lot of work to be done in Pakistan and a lot of donations are still required to make sure the people get their lives back on track," said Michael Vaughan.
The phone line number is 09012 700527
Calls will cost 25p per minute from BT landlines, calls from other networks and mobiles may cost more. Calls will last for no longer than four minutes. After the phone company charge, the profit of 14 pence per minute will go to the charities.
Four years after her Bournemouth Star Trail appearance Keedie won the 2002 British Resorts Association national finals' Last year she was riding high in the pop charts duetting with Duncan James from boy band Blue.
In a series of strange Bournemouth connections. Keedie appeared in Star Trail here, Duncan James lived in the town as indeed did Sir Hubert Parry, the man who wrote the music for William Blake's Jerusalem.
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