The Masked Singer stars visit Shooting Star 

In the lead-up to the London Marathon, host of ITV’s hit show, The Masked Singer, and Shooting Star Children’s Hospices Patron, Joel Dommett, visited Shooting Star House with McFly’s Danny Jones to meet supported families.

The duo’s visit comes as Joel gears up to take on the gruelling 26.2 mile run through the streets of London in aid of Shooting Star, with an epic twist. He will be completing the journey in the winning piranha costume, worn by Danny, in the latest series of The Masked Singer.  

During the event, families were thrilled to spend time with Joel and Danny, reminiscing about time spent watching The Masked Singer as a family, and sharing their lives with them.  

Supported mum Kelly said, “We love The Masked Singer and watch it every week – I called Danny very early on, I knew the voice! It’s so nice to meet Joel and Danny, you can see how much they care by the way they speak to families and talk to the children. I do always think it must be quite daunting to meet children like my daughter, who has lots of needs, yet they come in and make the effort to find out about them and us a family.” 

The pair also took part in activities throughout the afternoon, including wind-up animal marathon races.  

After taking some photos with families, Joel was then presented with his Shooting Star marathon running vest to wear as he trains for the marathon, as well as a special binder with some lovingly created marathon bib artwork from the families to wish him all the best to reach the ‘fin’ish line on Sunday 21 April.  

 “I decided to run for Shooting Star Children’s Hospices because it’s a charity that is very dear to my heart,” Joel said. 

“As a Patron of the charity and I know how much every tiny bit of money matters and I’m really proud to be running for them – dressed as a fish! My training’s going well and our visit to Shooting Star was exactly what was needed to give me a bit of fuel on the fire. Whenever I’m finding it difficult on the day in the costume, I can dig deep and think of the families, the children and all of the staff at Shooting Star and that’ll push me through. 

“When I first started coming to Shooting Star, I found out my wife was pregnant and so it puts a lot of life into perspective and makes me appreciate every moment that I have with my family and every smile and every laugh we have together. There are some amazing families I met and to find out how much Shooting Star has done for them and understanding what it means to have the support and place to go and not feel so alone – I think it’s hugely important.”  

It was Danny’s first-time visiting Shooting Star and stated, “What a special place – I don’t think I’ve ever quite had an experience like that, where there’s so much joy in the room and so much positivity, considering what every family and child are going through. It put so much into perspective for me, and I learnt a lot. Having a six-year-old boy myself, I can relate and feel even more reason to be involved. 

“Please support Joel running the London Marathon dressed in my precious Piranha. You’ve got straps everywhere, all across your diaphragm, you can’t see anything – I could hardly sing in it – and he’s got to run a marathon in it! But when you put piranha on, something happens to you. You feel like a superhero – Joel will feel like a super fish on the day, I’m telling you now!”  

Karen Sugarman MBE, Executive Vice-President of Shooting Star Children’s Hospices said, “We loved welcoming Joel and Danny to our west-London hospice. They both brought so much love and joy and spent quality time chatting to the families. We are so proud of Joel running the London Marathon for us. We know he will be ‘fin’tastic!” 
 
You can support Joel’s incredible pi-RUN-ha marathon challenge by donating here, with all funds raised helping to make every moment count for families facing the unimaginable.