Portsmouth gamers raise thousands for hospices in 24-hour marathon

Dan Davies and Callum Spawforth live-streamed their gaming marathon on Twitch last weekend, raising £2,251 for Naomi House and Jacksplace.

The pair work for Portsmouth-based company Ultracomms, and played online to hundreds of viewers.

Naomi House and Jacksplace provide respite, emergency and end of life care to life limited children and young adults across the south coast – but has been forced to suspend care services in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and is struggling with fundraising.

Dan said: ‘I've been gaming since I was a kid playing on my Spectrum, and it’s my main hobby besides airsoft.

‘I am totally overwhelmed and overjoyed that we met and exceeded our goal and would love to thank everyone for all of their support.’

To encourage more people to donate, the pair set themselves fundraising targets with forfeits that Dan would have to complete once each target was reached – including shaving his head, putting on makeup and wearing a unicorn onesie.

‘I'm so glad we did it and the support was beyond what I expected,’ Dan added.

Naomi House and Jacksplace has launched a gaming initiative, called Game On, to encourage further donations to the charity.

The scheme invites gamers to set up donation tabs on their Twitch streams, take on a gaming marathon or set up a games night with friends to collect funds.

Dan’s co-worker and friend, Callum, said: ‘I have a huge amount of respect for the work that they do as a charity – this just seemed like a great opportunity to support that work, doing something I enjoy.

‘Plus, I had to, of course, do everything in my power to get Dan’s head shaved.’

To support Dan and Callum’s fundraiser, people can go to justgiving.com/fundraising/dandgameon.

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