David Suchet
Plus Ed Stafford, Judd Trump, Deborah Meaden, Sir Paul McCartney and Kate McCann
- The actor David Suchet is among the celebrities who are encouraging people to become 'friends' of the Canal & River Trust, the new waterways charity that replaced British Waterways last week. The trust is asking people for monthly donations in return for benefits including discounts to enter museums and other attractions.
- The Scout Association has announced that the adventurer Ed Stafford, who in 2010 became the first man to walk the length of the Amazon River, has become a scouting ambassador.
- The snooker player Judd Trump and Deborah Meaden, one of the dragons from the TV show Dragons' Den, are among the famous names that have drawn up designs to form part of HorseWorld's Trail of Painted Ponies. The horse welfare charity will place 60 model painted ponies in locations in the Cabot Circus shopping centre in Bristol for seven weeks from 21 July. Each model will have its own unique design, including those dreamt up by Trump and Meaden.
- The musician Sir Paul McCartney is backing Humane Society International's Be Cruelty-Free campaign, which aims to end animal testing for cosmetics worldwide. He said: "If every cosmetic tested on rabbits or mice had a photo on the packaging showing these animals with weeping swollen eyes and inflamed skin, I believe everyone would leave cruelty on the shelf and go for the cruelty-free option instead."
- Kate McCann, mother of the missing girl Madeleine, has become an ambassador for Missing People. McCann has launched the charity's latest campaign, which will show the faces of missing people on a network of digital billboards across the UK over the summer. "More than 250,000 people are reported missing each year in the UK - worryingly, they could fill the Olympic Stadium three times over," she said. "Thankfully, campaigns like this can play a vital part in the search."
