Great Daffodil Appeal launches with new TV ad

Marie Curie Cancer Care is launching its annual fundraising appeal, the Great Daffodil Appeal with a brand new TV ad.

The TV advertisement, which will air nationwide this evening (Thursday 28 February) on ITV1 at 7pm, was directed by Tom Tagholm, the man behind the ‘Meet The Superhumans’ film for the Paralympics. The ad focuses on your last moments meaning as much as your first, and encourages viewers to make a donation and wear one of the charity’s daffodil pins.

Marie Curie nurses provide free care to people with a terminal illness and vital support for their loved ones, allowing families to spend their final weeks, days or hours with the people and things they love close by.

The ad highlights the importance of the care Marie Curie nurses provide, by comparing significant first experiences such as a kiss, with poignant moments at the end of life such as an older couple holding hands for the last time. These intimate and delicately shot moments are woven together to create a touching portrait of the support Marie Curie nurses provide.

The Great Daffodil Appeal is Marie Curie’s biggest fundraising campaign and encourages everyone to give a donation and wear one of the charity’s daffodil pins during March. Marie Curie is hoping to raise £7 million from the Great Daffodil Appeal this year which will help provide 350,000 hours of free nursing care.

Marie Curie’s social communities were given a preview of the TV ad which has already received over 6,300 views on YouTube, been shared nearly 500 times on Facebook, received over 1400 Likes on Facebook and over 400 tweets.

Chris Dainty, Director of Communications at Marie Curie Cancer Care said: "We’re really encouraged by how people have engaged with the campaign – even before the new ad has aired on TV. We’ve already had a record number of people signing up to collect for the Great Daffodil Appeal. Now it is time to really engage the public through Tom’s film with a message about the importance of delivering great end of life care. It’s an issue that’s relevant to everyone and they can show their support by donating and wearing a daffodil pin."

Director Tom Tagholm said he saw a clear connection between this project and the Paralympic campaign, and hoped it would help people feel more hopeful and less frightened about death. He said: "the charity is very special and I thought the optimism of the idea was interesting."

"In the same way as the Paralympics, it would be great to get people thinking about dying in a different, more optimistic way."

"The Paralympics were saying: ‘Here are athletes at the height of their game. This event is about intense competition and dynamism, and there is not even a smidgen of pity.’ Similarly with Marie Curie, it is putting death into a different context, the context of life."

"It is showing that there is tremendous value in the last moments, and that attention to small things such as the music you want, or the position of a bed by the window, that these things matter in helping you exit the planet in a way you choose to."

Daffodil pins will be available from volunteer collectors, local shops, supermarkets and Marie Curie shops. For more information call 0845 601 3107 (local rate) or visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/daffodil.

View the new TV ad on YouTube

Tweet about the new TV ad using: #lastmoments and/or #wearadaff

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