Sir Andrew Strauss on the campaign to help UK charities amid the coronavirus pandemic
Former England cricket captain Sir Andrew Strauss has revealed details of a campaign to help UK charities with their fundraising amid the coronavirus pandemic.
On Sunday April 26, Sir Andrew will participate in the 2.6 challenge national campaign.
As part of the initiative to get people to take on a challenge, Sir Andrew is encouraging everyone to bounce a ball 26 times on anything resembling a bat.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Sir Andrew told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: "Charities are doing it tough at the moment as are so many people. It's probably a time where charities are being called on more than ever to provide their services so the 2.6 campaign is really designed to help people to focus in on UK charities and do some fundraising."
Sir Andrew is fundraising for the Ruth Strauss Foundation which he launched following his wife's death from lung cancer in 2018.
"The Ruth Strauss Foundation are playing their part so the 26 Ball Tap Challenge is our way of getting some awareness out there. It's been incredible to see all the weird and wonderful ideas people have been coming up with to do their 26 Ball Tap Challenge," he added.
Explaining how the donations would help the Ruth Strauss Foundation, Sir Andrew said: "We're really focusing on the Ruth Strauss Foundation to keep doing the great work that our foundation does into rare forms of non-smoking lung cancer and also providing support for families and children who are preparing for the death of a parent from cancer.
"It is so important that the families have the rights to the support to help them go through that incredibly tough period in their lives and obviously for the patient themselves. We need fundraising to be able to do that and this is us playing our part," he said.
During the interview, Sir Andrew's former teammate Kevin Pietersen explained why he got involved with the challenge.
"When you get the opportunity to help a former colleague and teammate who has been through the tragedy that the Strauss family have been through, you raise your hand and say yes absolutely, how can we help, where can we help and what can we do to help because you are right, so many of these challenges are going on. You can see how many people are struggling. It's foolish not to help.'
A number of sports stars will come together for a live Legends Family Fitness day on YouTube on Sunday 26 April.
"Hopefully we'll get lots of people tuning in, donating to the Ruth Strauss Foundation. It's going to be a fun fitness event. It's not going to be too high tempo and hopefully, we'll raise some much-needed money on the back of it as well."