National TV advert campaign for Wakefield charity

The Penny Appeal, which helps destitute people around the world, is launching a campaign to help poverty-stricken people living in Britain, starting with TV commercials scheduled to air for the first time on ITV and Channel 5 on Christmas Eve.

It will run through the festive period with the last to be screened on New Year’s Eve.

Teaser adverts posted electronic billboards are currently being screened in tube stations around London - on the escalators on Bond Street, Oxford Circus and Knightsbridge among others.

They show a whistling kettle and a cup of tea being brewed.

Charity CEO Aemar Naeem explained: “Just like a cup of tea that comes from the East, but is regarded as quintessentially British, so is Penny Appeal.

“Our Muslim faith comes from the East, but we are proudly British.

“Although we work in 30 crisis-hit countries, here in the UK we provide aid to the poor, homeless and needy to help alleviate poverty and transform lives, for just a few pennies a day.

“This is particularly important during the winter months, especially for the people who live on the streets, who desperately need warm food and shelter.”

Across the UK over winter, Penny Appeal will be holding tea parties for the elderly, delivering gifts to sick children in hospitals and hosting Christmas dinners for the homeless and vulnerable as well as distributing winter warmer kits to rough sleepers and providing over 10,000 meals by way of hot meal provisions and family food parcels.

Penny Appeal was set up in 2009 by entrepreneur Adeem Younis to offer assistance for providing food, water and medical supplies.

Earlier this year BBC’s Dragon’s Den star, James Caan, visited the charity based on Wood Street in Wakefield, and admitted he was ‘blown away’ by the operation and expressed his desire to get involved.