Absolute Radio Live

Posted by Alice Smith on 09 September 2024

MATT FORDE AND JON RICHARDSON HOST

STAR-STUDDED COMEDY BENEFIT FOR RNOH CHARITY

What a night! Comedy favourites Matt Forde and Jon Richardson hosted a star-studded night of fun and laughter at Absolute Radio Live at the London Palladium on Sunday 17 November, in support of RNOH Charity. The stellar line-up featured some of the country’s best-loved comedians and was an absolutely cracking evening!

Matt became an ambassador for RNOH Charity in May 2024 after life-saving surgery at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) the year before. We were privileged that Absolute Radio, where good friends Matt and Jon host their own shows, supported our cause through this amazing event.

The momentous night featured comedy legend Dara O'Briain, The Last Leg's Josh Widdicombe, sell-out comedian and Live at the Apollo's Suzi Ruffell, stand-up superstar Glenn Moore, Loose Women's hilarious Judi Love and the much-loved star of Wonka, Taskmaster and other entertainment greatness, Phil Wang.

Matt joined The Dave Berry Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio to announce the plans on 9 September and said: “RNOH is a national hospital, so anyone in the country could get referred there, and it’s one of the best orthopaedic hospitals in the world. The work that they do, from giving people spinal surgery and removing cancer, to a lot of work with veterans and giving them prosthetic limbs, means it’s a hospital that needs a lot of extra support – beyond the NHS budget that they get – to do pioneering work and to help any patient that ends up there. And it’s such a special place, the treatment that you get there is really above and beyond, but it can only really keep doing that with the help from the Charity to fund all the extra developments.

“I was on a ward with people from all over Britain. It wasn’t just a local hospital, I was with people from Leeds, from Cornwall, from Newcastle. Hopefully none of us ever have to go there, but I did and my recovery might not have gone the way it did without the support of that Charity. It’s a privilege that this night at the Palladium will raise money for them – this Charity helps the hospital that saved my life and it may well save yours one day.”

RNOH Charity Chief Executive Rosie Stolarski said: “It is an honour to be chosen as the charity supported by this year’s Absolute Radio Live event. We could not wait to be there! RNOH Charity’s mission is to help create the best patient experience for everyone at RNOH and we are truly delighted to receive this wonderful support from our friends at Absolute. Whether it’s funding a new scanner to speed up patient waiting times, equipping the operating theatres with state-of-the-art machines or funding pioneering genomic research into cancer, all the money raised will go directly to help patients at the hospital.”