Stars lobby PM on malaria nets

Published on Monday 20 April 2009 22:08

SPORTS stars Andy Murray, David Beckham, and Denise Lewis visited Downing Street yesterday to press Gordon Brown to meet his promise to deliver 20 million life-saving malaria nets to Africa by next year.

The three stars have been named as members of the leadership council of new campaign group Malaria No More UK and were helping to mark its launch yesterday.

The front door of Number 10 was draped in a malaria net to highlight one of the most effective ways of preventing the disease. A year after Mr Brown's pledge, the UK has delivered some 9.7 million nets to Africa, and a further 1.9 million are on order.

Malaria No More UK wants to ensure the government meets its promise in full as its share of a total of 100 million nets pledged by the world's eight richest states. For just 5, a net can be bought, transported and delivered to an African family, protecting a mother and child or brother and sister for up to five years.

Around 90 per cent of the one million deaths from malaria each year are in Africa, where the disease kills a child every 30 seconds.

Murray, Britain's number one tennis star, said: "This is the first global charity I've been involved with in this capacity and it was an easy decision. Malaria is completely preventable and stoppable yet it still kills more children in Africa than any other single disease."

Olympic gold medallist Lewis added: "It's so easy for us to make a massive difference. Buying a 5 bed net will protect a mother and her child for up to five years."

Malaria No More UK executive director Sarah Kline said: "We are delighted the Prime Minister has announced the UK has already delivered 9.3 million nets of the 20 million pledged.We are calling on him to press other EU and G8 governments to deliver their share of the 100 million bed nets they promised last year."