Goodwill Ambassador Craig David will donate a new, original song to the fight against TB

22 September 2010 - New York - Tonight at a gala event organized by the UN Foundation and Ray Chambers, the United National Special Envoy for Malaria, Goodwill Ambassador Craig David made a special announcement.

"Tonight, I would like to pledge an exclusive and new recording that I will donate to the fight against tuberculosis," he said. "The song will be available for free download on my own website and on that of the Stop TB Partnership. The goal is to build a powerful online community for raising awareness and fighting the stigma attached to tuberculosis. Tuberculosis sufferers and communities affected need to know that there is no shame in tuberculosis."

The gala was a high point in a crowded week of events organized on the occasion of the United Nations High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG Summit). The assembled dignitaries and celebrities included Queen Rania of Jordan, Bob Geldof, Tommy Hilfiger and Ted Turner.

Craig stressed that without tackling TB the MDGs will not be reached. "Look at the situation with women and children: tuberculosis is the number three cause of death in women. And we know that we can’t fight HIV without also fighting tuberculosis which remains the leading cause of death of people living with HIV," said.

There is too much silence around tuberculosis, he said. "And that is because in countries heavily affected by TB people think it is shameful. In the rest of the world, people don’t know about it and think it is a disease of the past. Even the Millennium Development Goals forgot to mention tuberculosis!! In fact the heading of MDG 6 is: 'Combat HIV/IDS, Malaria and other diseases´. Tuberculosis got lost among the other diseases. Yet, it kills nearly 5 000 people per day worldwide."

Craig announced his pledge to create and record the new song dedicated to the fight TB against during an interview with the 24-hour news channel, Sky News.