Great Ormond Street Hospital the Winner in Battle of the Celebrities Between Morgan and Sugar

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Jan 18, 2011, 12:44 ET

LONDON, Jan. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Great Ormond Street Hospital in London benefited from a charitable donation after Piers Morgan and Alan Sugar donned their boxing gloves in a battle to collect the most followers on Twitter by Christmas.

The recent 'tweet off' between the two stars set the scene for an interesting challenge to emerge. Only days after joining the Twitter community, Piers Morgan bet rival Lord Sugar that he could exceed Sugar's 200,000 followers in time for Christmas day. If Morgan won the wager, then Sugar had to donate 5,000 pounds to Great Ormond Street Hospital. If Morgan did not exceed Sugar's Twitter following, then he would be the one to donate 5,000 pounds to the children's charity.

Alan Sugar emerged from the competition victorious with Piers Morgan having to hand over a cheque for 5,000 pounds to the children's hospital as a result. After conceding defeat however, Piers doubled his donation to 10,000 pounds while Alan pledged to quintuple that amount, donating a total of 50,000 pounds.

Both Morgan and Sugar held nothing back during the competition. Piers Morgan jabbed at his rival, tweeting: "Remember the dentist's warning everyone: too much Sugar will rotten you. So unfollow Lord_Sugar immediately." Morgan remained confident in his ability to beat Lord Sugar's follower count by Christmas day. "I'm not liked, no. I'm loved," he claimed.

As Piers Morgan flew to New York to prepare for his 2011 American television prime time show "Piers Morgan Tonight," Lord Alan Sugar tweeted, "I need to warn the USA about Piers Morgan."

"What's your flight number, I want to send apology to cabin staff, they don't know what they are letting themselves in for."

As Piers Morgan's follower count closed the gap every day, he tweeted to Sugar: "Gap closing every single day... start panicking my Lord." In the end though, Lord Sugar was the victor. Great Ormond Street Hospital gratefully received the donations from both Morgan and Sugar last week.

Charity challenges and similar fundraising ideas now make a significant contribution to donations to UK charities.

About Great Ormond Street Hospital:

Great Ormond Street Hospital is an international centre of excellence in child healthcare and together with its research partner, the UCL Institute of Child Health, GOSH forms the UK's only academic biomedical research centre specialising in paediatrics.

Since its formation in 1852, the hospital has been dedicated to children's healthcare, children's medical research and to finding new and better ways to treat childhood illnesses. Great Ormond Street Hospital has over 175,000 patient visits each year for the rarest and most complex conditions. In addition to providing health advice and promoting healthy eating, the hospital offers the widest range of paediatric services under one roof in Britain, and pioneers new treatments and drugs through its research body, the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH).