Shearer, Holmes in Sport Relief fundraiser

he celebrated British sports stars, Alan Shearer and Kelly Holmes, will be in Cape Town over the weekend as guests of UK fundraising giant Comic Relief and BBC Sport.

Shearer was one of the finest strikers of his generation and was capped 63 times for England's national football side.

He still holds the record as the all-time top scorer in the English Premier League with 260 goals, which he accumulated while playing for Southampton, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United.

In 2001 he received his Order of the British Empire from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Holmes is a double Olympic gold medallist after her all-conquering 800m and 1500m performances in 2004 at the Athens Olympics.

The retired middle distance athlete still holds numerous British records and her achievements were recognised the Queen who appointed her as a dame in 2005.

Comic Relief will be staging the Sport Relief Mile in Cape Town on Sunday and all the funds raised will go to Child Welfare South Africa for their many child protection and HIV & AIDS programmes, which takes in over two million children.

The race will start and finish at the V&A Waterfront and the route will take athletes past the magnificent new Cape Town Stadium.

The BBC will be filming the event and will flight a special two-hour BBC Entertainment Sport Relief TV Show that will be broadcast across Africa later on Sunday at 7.30pm.

Shearer and Holmes will be the television presenters.

The show will feature all the highlights from the day's event including interviews with celebrities, sports stars and other participants.

Comic Relief UK's Director of Global Strategy, Amanda Horton-Mastin, said the two stars have offered to lend their support to a worthy cause at a time when football fever was hotting up ahead of the World Cup in South Africa.

"Sport Relief wants to capture the excitement of the World Cup in South Africa and establish the Sport Relief Mile model of fundraising to raise money for disadvantaged children in South Africa," said Horton-Mastin. - Sapa