CHILDREN across Bradford’s schools are being encouraged to done red noses and make a spectacle of themselves for the upcoming Comic Relief fundraiser.

The people of Bradford have helped make the campaign, held in March every second year, a huge success in the past, and several local charities have benefitted from the money raised.

The charity is hoping for another bumper year, and one local school who has raised thousands over the past few years recently made an early start on the funny fundraising.

This year’s event, on March 13, will involve people across the country not only wearing the red noses that give the event its name, but also cake their face in facepaint or over the top make up.

Pupils at Swain House Primary School have been major supporter of the event. In 2013 the school had a Pyjama day and sponsored Gangham Style dance. Over the past three years the school has raised £6,000 for Comic Relief and Children in Need.

Because of their love for the event, the school’s year 5 was chosen to have an early Red Nose Day “face parade” to promote this year’s fundraiser for other Bradford schools. On February 5 they came to school in painted faces, oversized props, crazy wigs and red noses to show other schools how easy it is to take part in this year’s campaign.

Andrew Doogan, Year 5 teacher, joined in the face parade with fellow teachers and pupils, and said, “It was really easy for the children to get involved and it was brilliant to see how much fun everyone had with their faces looking funny.

“We decided that all the pupils would be painted as one of the nine red nose characters and it certainly went down well, they loved it and have helped to raise money for a great cause.”

Comic Relief raises money for both national and international charities. One local group that benefits is the BLAST Project. Started in the Bradford/Leeds area, the charity works with young boys who are at risk of being sexually exploited.

They also deliver preventative work in schools, train professionals and tackle the issue of child sexual exploitation and boys and young men on a national level.

It has been funded by Comic Relief to the tune of £140,021 over the course of three years, this provides a full time coordinator and a part time worker to work with boys, also other project costs and core costs.

It is the only charity of its type in the country, and has worked with councils and organisations around the UK.

Recently the project became one of the Comic Relief supported charities to get a red plaque in recognition of its work.

Phil Mitchell, the project coordinator of the BLAST Project said “Without Comic Relief funding we would not be able to do a lot of the work we have done. Boys and young men would not be getting the support and information they need and there would be no leading body solely dedicated to tackling the inequality and inaccessibility issues experienced by boys and young men who are at risk of child sexual exploitation.”

Since being set up in 1988 Comic Relief has provided funding to 16,800 UK projects.

For more ways to get involved, visit rednoseday.com/schools