The Preston duo hosting virtual quizzes raise over £40k for charitable causes

And after hosting just four charity quiz events through virtual video calling service Zoom in recent weeks, they have managed to raise £44,000 to be split between three worthy causes.

When work opportunities for DJs and entertainers vanished at the start of lockdown, the enterprising local duo Carl and Damion decided to keep busy and start hosting their interactive quiz online for families through their new venture Quiz Live.

First set up in the hope of just entertaining their regular visitors to quiz nights in Preston, it would soon begin attracting hundreds of people from as far as the USA and the Netherlands.

And the entertainment lifeline thrown several times weekly by enterprising DJ Carl Matthews from Much Hoole became an opportunity to raise money for worthy causes in need at the beginning of this year.

Carl, 37, said: "This has been a lifeline for DJs and entertainers who have been suck out of work because of the pandemic. It was all about carrying on doing what I enjoyed and keeping in touch with our existing quizzers but it has gone way above and beyond our expectations.

"It has enabled us to do a lot of good for people and bring people together, keeping them entertained through such difficult times. Initially, our intention was to keep in touch with people and give them something extra to do, but it just took off.

"People just download our app to their smartphone and join me on Zoom. It’s gone from strength to strength. We’ve had up to 250 teams from around the world that have joined us for shows."

Having hosted quizzes around local venues for the past six years, such as the Poachers at Bamber Bridge and Phantom Winger in Broughton, it seemed only fitting that they continued when the world began dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak.

So Carl transformed his spare bedroom at his Much Hoole home into a mini studio, fit with a green screen, microphones and monitors for his multiple weekly quiz shows.

And more recently, they turned their efforts into raising money for charity, with more than £44,000 now raised over just four online quizzes and being split between Macmillan, the Hope for Louise campaign and to support a local man and his family after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Carl added: "It has all really started from nothing but has helped so many people. We spent last year building up what we were doing and hosting three of our quizzes a week for people but in the new year, realised we could really make a difference.

"We began charging £10 a head for tickets, with 100 per cent of the sales going to charities and using our growing platform to help others.

"We saw an opportunity because more and more people were joining our quiz nights and it was getting much more popular. We are so happy to have raised all this money from just four online events over the past few months.

"It is a great way for people to come together from home - I host shows with live interactive scoreboards and people get involved with their phones. It has been brilliant and we are going to continue with them even when we go back to normal."

Find out more information at their website Quiz Live.

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