Going wild for Red Nose Day

The region was going crazy for Comic Relief today with fundraisers going through pain, humiliation and exhaustion for the good cause but having great fun at the same time.

At the Learning Curves Day Nursery, in Brierley Hill, nursery nurse Jenny Whitehouse chose to raise funds with the traditional baked bean bath, while at a health centre in Pelsall eight brave volunteers were today having their hair stripped with hot wax.

The men agreed to undergo the beauty treatment at Gemini Health and Beauty Centre in Norton Road.

Pupils at Rough Hay School, in Darlaston, were stepping in to the limelight by taking part in an X Factor talent show.

A sponsored car wash was taking place at Texaco in Bloxwich Road, Leamore, and staff at Caldmore Housing Association, in Caldmore Green, arrived for work all wearing red.

There was also a car wash set up by staff in fancy dress at the Fitness First gym in Walsall Wood.

Their colleagues in Wednesbury were opening their doors to the general public and putting them through their paces in a fundraising aerobathon.

At Halesowen College today students were also flexing their muscles in a sponsored triathlon. And in Dudley a group of workers from Sainsbury's swapped stacking shelves for mucking out the animal enclosures at the town's zoo to raise funds.

Unique celebrity portraits of Linda Barker, The Chuckle Brothers, Cannon and Ball and Helen Lederer, taken by University of Wolverhampton graduate Neely Reeves, were being put under the hammer to raise money in a Comic Relief auction.

At Brockmoor Primary School, in Brierley Hill, pupils arrived for classes dressed up as their teachers who had changed in to uniforms.

More than £400 has already been collected at Turtles Childrens Nursery, in Stafford, after youngsters arrived at the centre yesterday in red noses and pyjamas.

And a further £110 was collected at Doxey Primary School in the town during their Ready For Bed day, which saw pupils and teachers in classes in their night clothes.

Two young men in drag stole the show at a Strictly Come Dancing style event at Moreton School, in Wolverhampton, yesterday.

Daniel Harris and Craig Lloyd, both aged 18, joined fellow pupil Haylee Blackwell, 17, on stage for the contest, which it is hoped will raise more than £700.

Youngsters at The Straits Primary School, in Lower Gornal, painted each others' noses during their fundraising drive yesterday.

The last Red Nose Day in 2005 raised £63 million, a figure Comic Relief is hoping to beat this year.

BBC television will be dedicated to the charity effort tonight, with a series of shows that will feature Sharon Osbourne working as a bingo caller, former newspaper editor Piers Morgan battling not to lose his job again and Kate Moss playing Vicky Pollard's twin sister.

The fundraising started early on January 31 and television viewers have already been treated to Ray Stubbs 'singing' in Comic Relief Does Fame Academy and a clash of the celebrity egos in a special edition of The Apprentice.

Celebrities have been queuing up to support this year's campaign. The Big One! show will run between 7pm and 1.30am on BBC1 and BBC2.

Celebrity presenters include Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand, Lenny Henry, Davina McCall, Graham Norton and Chris Evans.

There will also be sketches from Ricky Gervais, Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat, The Mighty Boosh, Catherine Tate, Lenny Henry and David Tennant.