TV personality and Sport Relief hero David Walliams beamed with pride as he scooped a National Television Award last week. The award was given in recognition of his enormous achievement in swimming the length of the Thames to raise cash for Sport Relief last autumn.
Presented with the award by Dermot O’Leary, an overwhelmed David struggled to speak over the roaring crowd at the 02 centre in London, where they whole audience erupted into rapturous applause and gave him a standing-ovation.
Eventually, David was able to say,‘’It was the best and worst week of my life. The worst because I had to swim 140 miles and the best because all of you came out to support me and most importantly donated your money to Sport Relief.’
He then joked, ’I’ve got a bit of an exclusive now though because I was talking to Alan Carr and he said he’s going to do it this year in a thong!’
The BT Sport Relief Challenge: Walliams Vs The Thames saw the 40 year old comedy actor complete the most physically gruelling challenge of his life. It even left him with a serious medical condition called Giardiasis, an infection of the small intestine, which took weeks to shake off.
Throughout the eight day ordeal, as David front crawled his way through 140 miles of sewage filled water, he faced the serious risk of hypothermia, dehydration and suffered a serious bout of ‘Thames Tummy’, which nearly threatened to end the challenge three days in.
But he ploughed on through and even managed to save a Labrador puppy called Vinnie along the way.
David was cheered on by thousands of members of the public, who came out in force to line the river bank as he swam, as well as many celebrity supporters including Jimmy Carr, Miranda Hart and Rob Brydon.
The TV funny man powered through 107,062 strokes, burned 65574 calories, and suffered eight long days of pain before finally making it to Westminster.
The National Television Award was given to David in acknowledgment of his incredible effort to raise much-needed cash and change lives.
As the Sport Relief 2012 fundraising campaign is now in full swing, BT have joined forces with Sport Relief to bring even more celebrity challenges in the coming months.
David did 140 miles to help change lives. You can do 1, 3 or 6 and change lives too. Simply enter the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile right here.
Related past articles
- Sport Relief Celebrity Supporters Visit HIV Project
- Stars Model Sport Relief T-Shirts
- TV Star Reaches South Pole For Charity
- Stars Launch Sport Relief 2012
- Helen Skelton's Charity Polar Challenge To Hit TV Screens
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