Categories Charity Helen Personal and Family Life Philanthropy

Ride4Hugo Bike Challenge

Using 2 Wheels to Keep the Memory of Hugo Yaxley & Aunty Helen Alive

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | June 2, 2022

Hugo Yaxley is the nephew of Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory and the Ride4Hugo bicycle event was organized in memory of Hugo and Helen.  The Ride Campaign aims to raise money and awareness for four charities that played a big part in Hugo and Helen’s lives. In 2021 Ride4Hugo raised over £97,000 and they are back for 2022 with three big challenges to continue raising money for Sir HvH Arts Foundation, Place2Be, Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance (DSAA) and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.

Please donate here to add to their collection pot! Visit their Instagram story here.

Challenges:

On May 1, 2022, two of Hugo’s school friends, Harry Dayus and James Gilroy ran the Birmingham Half-Marathon.

Then on June 5, 2022 – the last day of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend – friends and family of Hugo and Helen will be doing a bike ride (48 or 101km) through the beauty Wiltshire countryside. According to HvH Arts Foundation Instagram account, Damian will be there in support of the event.

Finally, in July 2022, Hugo’s brother and Helen’s nephew, Tom, will be riding over 2,100km and climbing over 22,000m from The National Theatre in London to the Plaza Mayor in Madrid.

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Categories CBE Charity Helen Honors Philanthropy Print Media

Damian Lewis Made CBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours After Glittering Acting Career

Damian Shares CBE With Dear Helen McCrory

by Lily Waddell | Evening Standard | June 1, 2022

Damian Lewis has been made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) after an acting career that has spanned Second World War epics, terrorism thrillers and period dramas. The 51-year-old television, film and stage star has been honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to both drama and charity.

Among his best known roles are Army Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band Of Brothers, Nicholas Brody in the Showtime series Homeland and Henry VIII in Wolf Hall. Lewis told the PA news agency:

“What a great honour to be awarded the CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to drama and for the charity work that I have carried out over the years and during the pandemic with my late wife, Helen McCrory. Thank you very much. She and I are both thrilled.”

He and his late wife Helen McCrory are co-founders of FeedNHS, an initiative working with restaurant Leon on the campaign of the same name in a bid to provide NHS workers with meals during the coronavirus crisis. He shares the CBE honour with Helen:

Continue reading Damian Lewis Made CBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours After Glittering Acting Career

Categories CBE Charity Helen Honors Philanthropy Print Media

Damian Lewis Honoured by Queen Elizabeth

CBE: Services to Both Drama and Charity

by Michael Holden | Reuters | May 31, 2022

LONDON, May 31 (Reuters) – Actor Damian Lewis, author Ian Rankin and former Northern Ireland first minister Arlene Foster were among more than 1,100 people recognised by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in her annual birthday honours. The list, which is issued to mark the 96-year-old monarch’s official birthday, honours recipients for their “outstanding” contributions; most awards recognise public service or community work.

This year’s honours come ahead of four days of national celebration, beginning on Thursday, to mark Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne. “This historic Platinum Jubilee is not only a celebration of the monarch but of the qualities she possesses,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. “The honours she confers this week reflect many of those qualities that have been invaluable from all different walks of life and to communities across the UK.”

Lewis, who won a Golden Globe for his role in TV drama “Homeland”, was made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services both to drama and to charity for initiating a campaign with his late wife Helen McCrory to raise 1 million pounds to provide food for health service workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Continue reading Damian Lewis Honoured by Queen Elizabeth

Categories CBE Charity Helen Honors Philanthropy Print Media

Damian Lewis Will Be Awarded a CBE

Honored: A Gong for FeedNHS

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 28, 2022

Damian is set to receive a gong in the Queen’s Birthday Honours this week for his NHS charity work, and will be honored with Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE). He has quietly carried out philanthropic work for several charities over many years, some of it with Helen. Last year he and Helen helped raise £1.5 million to feed NSH staff during the CoVid-19 pandemic, which allowed 40,000 meals a day to be served to 100 hospitals.

The Sun quoted a friend stating, “This is richly deserved for all the work Damian has done for so many people with so much done with little or no public fanfare.”

The Royal recognition comes after Damian was awarded an OBE by The Duke of Cambridge Prince William at Buckingham Palace in 2014 for contributions to drama. He is an ambassador for a number of organizations, including youth charities Sir HvH Arts Foundation and The Prince’s Trust.

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire award (MBE, OBE, CBE) is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organizations, and public service outside the Civil Service. The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022 will be printed in a special Gazette supplement in June 2022.

Continue reading Damian Lewis Will Be Awarded a CBE

Categories Charity Football/Soccer Gallery Personal and Family Life Philanthropy

Damian Lewis Attends Oscar Foundation Luncheon

Oscar International UK Tour: Education With a Kick

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 19, 2022

In May, 2022 Damian attended a luncheon hosted by the Oscar Foundation to celebrate Oscar’s work in low income communities in India. Royal Patron HRH Sophie, The Countess of Wessex also attended the event, which took place to thank those who supported the Foundation, and also to share plans how to reach out to more children in 2022/2023. The combination of football and charity is totally Damian’s turf!

The Foundation is education with a kick, a non-profit organization that uses football to instill the value of education in children and youth from low-income communities of India. The Foundation is headquartered in Mumbai and has reached out to children in Mumbai, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand. Others in attendance were Nathaniel Parker, Ashok Shankar Rathod and Lucinda Sowerbutts.

To view more photos of the event, please visit our Gallery here.
For more information about The Oscar Foundation, visit their website here.

Categories Charity Old Friends Philanthropy Review Theatre

THE TIMES REVIEW: Sondheim’s ‘Old Friends’

Five Stars: A Star-Spangled, Unforgettable Tribute to Stephen Sondheim

by Clive Davis | The Times | May 4, 2022

Photo: Danny Kaan

Excuse me if I gush, but this was one of those nights where it was difficult to focus on highlights simply because there were so many. Cameron Mackintosh’s memorial concert for Stephen Sondheim, who died in November, began on a high note when the veteran Julia McKenzie, who did so much to champion the composer’s work on this side of the Pond, walked onto the stage to sing Side by Side by Side. Proof, if needed, that British artists don’t need to feel like intruders on this territory. They’ve made the music their own.

McKenzie’s appearance was the kind of moment which, in normal circumstances, would crown a memorable evening. In this case it was just the prelude. Of course, it was all the more fitting that this gala concert for the Stephen Sondheim Foundation was happening at the theatre (formerly known as the Queen’s) that bears the artist’s name. In his opening speech, Mackintosh wryly quipped that the twisted ankle that had prevented the great man from attending the opening in 2020 had just been an excuse to avoid having to sit through Les Misérables.

After Mackintosh had his say, the songs began to flow, with no host to cause any longueurs. Matthew Bourne and Maria Friedman — who shared directing credits — managed to cram in an immense range of material. Meanwhile, the cheering and the applause grew louder and louder. It reached its peak, perhaps, in a comic version of Broadway Baby, which began with McKenzie pretending to audition with a surly pianist before being joined by a blowsy pack of rivals including Bernadette Peters, Bonnie Langford and an insouciant Helena Bonham Carter.

Imelda Staunton sang Everything’s Coming Up Roses. Who else but Judi Dench could be entrusted with Send in the Clowns? If Dench’s delivery barely rose above a whisper, Haydn Gwynne powered through a version of The Ladies Who Lunch that was as potent and savage and tipsy as anything the late Elaine Stritch gave us. A twinkle-eyed Damian Lewis joined in the party too, kicking and shimmying his way through the risqué Everybody Ought to Have a Maid alongside Rob Brydon, Julian Ovenden and a mischievous Sian Phillips. As ever, the elegant Janie Dee glowed in the dark, sizzling through the bossa nova parody The Boy Friend.

Read the rest of the original article at The Times

Categories Charity Old Friends Philanthropy Review Theatre

LONDON THEATRE REVIEW: Sondheim’s ‘Old Friends’

A Tribute for the Ages

by Matt Wolf | London Theatre | May 4, 2022

“He’s left us with an impossible choice.” So the impresario Cameron Mackintosh told an entirely rapt crowd near the start of Old Friends, the one-off celebration of Stephen Sondheim that took place across three unforgettable hours May 3 at the Sondheim Theatre on the West End. “Impossible” because the legendary composer-lyricist left behind a capacious back catalogue when he died last November, age 91, not to mention a longlist of people who will forever be associated with his work.

Mackintosh, heralding an array of talent ranging from the “young to the ever young”, kicked off an evening rife with cheers and ovations on what, we were told, was one day shy of the 46th anniversary of the London premiere of Side By Side By Sondheim. That musical revue, produced by a then 29-year-old Mackintosh, helped bring Sondheim to the attention of the British, who have revered him ever since.

Continue reading LONDON THEATRE REVIEW: Sondheim’s ‘Old Friends’