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By Will Sturgeon, 8 March 2005 11:15

NEWS The IT industry is being encouraged once again to get involved in the charitable mirth-fest which is Comic Relief – taking place this year on 11 March.

The charity's website will be co-ordinating a lot of this year's fundraising and includes information on what is happening around the country and what the public can do to help out.

One tech company already involved in fundraising for the event is Cisco. The networking giant, which has long enjoyed sponsorship deals with Premiership football, will be hosting a charity football match at Aston Villa's Villa Park stadium.

The game will be played between an Aston Villa legends XI, including European Cup-winning goalkeeper Nigel Spink, and a celebrity XI, including Angus Deayton.

Cisco will be selling eight tickets on eBay which will enable the winning bidders to meet and greet the players, watch the match from the director's box and attend the post-match VIP party.

Duncan Mitchell, MD of Cisco Systems UK and Ireland, said: "As a big supporter of Comic Relief for the past five years, everyone at Cisco wanted to go one better this year by raising as much money as possible. The football match at Villa Park will hopefully help make this year's Red Nose Day fundraising total the highest ever."

Aston Villa chairman Doug Ellis said: "This is going to be a special night and we’re looking to raise significant funds for Comic Relief. All the money raised goes to a great cause, so I would encourage all our fans to get behind the match."

Another enterprising techie is asking the public to donate old mobile phones and inkjet printer cartridges so they can be recycled, with proceeds going to Comic Relief.

Recycling company Eurosource has promised cash for every mobile and cartridge recycled.

Jamie Rae, CEO of Eurosource, said: "To date, we are proud to have raised almost £1.5m for various major charities and we are looking forward to helping a charity which is renowned for doing such fantastic work.

"Red Nose Day encourages people to do something out of the ordinary to raise funds. Sadly, for a lot of people in Britain, recycling is out of the ordinary, so we want to encourage more people to be environmentally friendly and help this great charity at the same time."

Eurosource has created a dedicated website where you can find out which mobiles and inkjet cartridges can be recycled, and exactly how much will be given to Comic Relief for each one.

Tickets for charity football match can be obtained from either the enquiry window at the Villa Village Ticket Office at Villa Park, or the city centre store in Pavilions Central.