Tens of Thousands Text Good Will On Kindness Day UK
Send a kind text to someone you know

London, UK, 11th November 2011—Humanitarian campaigner Louise Burfitt-Dons is urging everyone in the UK to send a caring SMS on November 13th to mark the second national kindness day.

`Trinity College are running trials right now to see if supportive texts can help recovering alcoholics, for example,’ says Louise, co-founder of Kindness Day UK. `It would be good to do the same with kindness.’

`We hear so much about text abuse, cybercrime and how mobiles were used to start the London riots’ says Louise, who also set up children’s charity Act Against Bullying. `But mobile phones are mostly used for good causes.’

Studies show most people grab their keys, their wallet or purse and their mobile phone when they leave the house in the morning.

As a result it is estimated that billions of texts are sent daily in the world. The volume of text messages surpasses that of mobile voice calls.

The organisers suggest celebrating Kindness Day with a `thank you’ to someone kind in your life, a favourite quotation about kindness or by texting about an 'act of kindness' you have seen performed or been the recipient of.

`Everyone likes to get a text if it’s a nice one,’ she added.

Kindness Day UK is a non-monetary, humanitarian organisation set up by Louise Burfitt-Dons and `Secret Millionaire’ David Jamilly to aid the promotion of World Kindness Day in the UK. Since its inception in 2010 it has received letters of support and quotations from Gary Lineker, Sir Alex Ferguson CBE, Marcelle Speller OBE, Vanessa Feltz, Camilla Dallerup, Peter Snow ,Dr Mike Clarke - Chief Executive, RSPB, Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, Jo Brand, Dr. Patch Adams, Barbara Frost CE Water Aid, Sir Nicholas Young – CEO, British Red Cross ,Kay Boycott - Director of CPC, Shelter, Mark Goldring – Chief Executive, Mencap, Dr John Low CBE – Chief Executive, Charities Aid Foundation, Katie Piper – Katie Piper, Foundation, Caroline Barker - World Animal Day, Billy Murray, Patsy Kensit, Vincent and Flavia, Alan Titchmarch ,Brian Blessed, Jilly Cooper OBE, Kavita Oberoi - Managing Director, Oberoi Consulting, Emma Harrison CBE - Chairman, A4e,Pam Ferris, Noel Edmonds ,Dame Barbara Stocking DBE - Chief Executive, Oxfam GB, Prof The Rt HON Sir John Major KG CH ,Prof Lord Richard Layard, Peter Cullum, Executive Chairman - Towergate Partnership, Charles Kennedy MP, Adrian Barritt, Adurva.org, Dilwar Hussain, Policy Research Centre, The Rt Hon David Blunkett , and Arlene Phillips

Editors only:

More information:
kindnessdayuk@ukkindnessmovement.org Press contact Simone on 0208 995 9500 07884105922

About SMS Trials:
The trial is being run by University of Dublin, Trinity College (NCT01037868). The investigators seek to determine if text messaging is a useful and effective strategy to help maintain abstinence, improve adherence with medication and ultimately promote mental stability in depressed patients discharged from an in-patient dual diagnosis programme. The investigators hypothesize that, daily supportive/reminder SMS text messages to depressed patients discharged from an in-patient dual diagnosis programme would increase alcohol abstinence rates, improve medication adherence rates and improve the overall mental well-being of patients compared with those receiving treatment as usual.

About World Kindness Day
The date decreed for World Kindness Day is 13th November. This was the opening day of the first World Kindness Movement® conference held at Tokyo in 1998, and the 35th anniversary of the Small Kindness Movement of Japan, which brought the signatories of the ‘declaration of kindness’ of the World Kindness Movement together in 1997. www.worldkindnessmovement.org

About Kindness Day UK
Kindness Day UK was founded by Louise Burfitt-Dons and David Jamilly in 2010 to mark November 13th as an annual celebration of kind deeds in the UK.
Louise Burfitt-Dons FRSA is a humanitarian whose pro-social projects include children’s charity Act Against Bullying which she founded in 2003; raising awareness of the consequences of our warming planet and empathy. She set up the think tank UK Kindness Movement in 2005, has designed a range of popular pro-social campaigns including Cool to be Kind and Cyberkind and is co-founder of Kindness Day UK which launched in 2010. She is in demand as an inspirational speaker and set up the Women Speaker Network for the RSA whose mission is to raise women’s profile in society by greater participation in public speaking.

David Jamilly is a philanthropist and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Theme Traders, the London based party planning and prop hire company. He appeared on the TV programme Secret Millionaire when he donated funds to Zoes Place, Sids Place and the Redcar Amateur Boxing Association[10] where he became a patron. David also became a patron of Coastwatch Redcar[1and co-founder of the Redcar Fire and Steel festival. He is the founder of Pod Charity Trust which holds 2500 parties annually for children in hospital wards and hospices through the UK and founder of the Good Deeds Organisation which promotes global good deeds and kindness.

About World Kindness Movement
The WKM was established in 1997 and now has 22 member nations. The idea behind the World Kindness Movement (WKM) crystallised at a conference in Tokyo in 1997 when the Small Kindness Movement of Japan brought together like-minded kindness movements from around the world. The WKM was officially launched in Singapore on 18 November 2000 at the 3rd WKM Conference. The mission of the WKM is to inspire individuals towards greater kindness and to connect nations to create a kinder world. In the UK it is represented by the UK Kindness Movement.

About the UK Kindness Movement
The UKKM is the think tank on kindness research and leading representative of the World Kindness Movement in the UK.

It’s aim is to explore and raise awareness of the impacts of consideration of others across the nation in order to encourage and promote the impacts of UK kindness both nationally and internationally as an improvement to the quality of life for all and a vital diplomatic tool.

It was formed in 2005 as an associate campaign of leading children’s charity Act Against Bullying to promote their kindness activities and initiate other pro-social projects. Since then it has designed and produced a range of original resources including school assembly notices, survey materials, award certificates and designed and carried out environmental and social promotions including Be Decent for a Day, Cool to be Kind Campaign, Cyberkind, Kindness Day UK, Nurse the Earth Campaign, and conferences such as Kindival and the UK Kindness Conference.

The UKKM is currently working with academics, religious leaders and government advisors in the UK on ideas to stimulate a more vitalised and empathetic nation.

Media releases issued by the UK Kindness Movement