Real and Smooth help heroes with over £1m

Real Radio, Real Radio XS and Smooth Radio’s fund-raising for Help for Heroes over the last three years has reached over £1m.

The company raised £255k during its last “Help for Heroes Day” in September with on-air auctions and special events.

Celebrities including Leona Lewis, Rebecca Ferguson, The Overtones, Dave Stewart, Mick Hucknall and Lorraine Kelly joined in, whilst staff took part in fund-raising challenges such as tank racing, a tandem bike ride across Wales, the gruelling Three Peaks mountain climb and a 3,500 mile spin bike ride – the distance from London to Afghanistan – in a bid to boost fundraising.

Soldiers stories were highlighted throughout the day, which was timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Help for Heroes.

Real and Smooth Group Programme Director John Simons said: “We are delighted to have raised over a million pounds for this charity. But none of this would have been possible if it weren’t for an incredibly dedicated bunch of people at Real and Smooth who have not only created compelling programming which has moved listeners to donate in such austere times, but have gone above and beyond the call of duty to take on challenges themselves to help raise extra funds.”