I’VE had a tremendous response to my upcoming 24-hour Swing-a-thon for the Alzheimer’s Society I am doing as a salute to my musical hero Tony Bennett.

Since last week’s column, where I first told you about it, the amount raised has continued to climb. I am very grateful for that and I am quietly confident that I will reach my target of £5,000 for this very worthy charity.

This week I have been interviewed by Martin and Annette Logan from All FM radio and Martin will also be coming along on the day to film some of my Swing-a-thon for his show on Irish TV.

I have also been interviewed by Becky Want on BBC Radio Manchester. The interview is pre-recorded so listen out for that when they run it. As soon as I know the date I’ll let you know too.

The LA Times have also been in touch to find out about what I’m doing. News certainly travels!

The highlight of my week though has been receiving a lovely letter from Tony Bennett’s management in which they thank me for my salute to Tony and give me both their own and Tony’s family’s blessing to hold the event. The fact that his family not only know about my fundraiser but also support it has given me an extra boost to do this difficult challenge with pride.

We are working on live-streaming the event so that at any point during the 24 hours you can go online and watch it. I appreciate that not everyone uses social media like Facebook so we are now looking at running the live stream on my websites waynedevlin.com and allabouttrafford.co.uk.

If you would like to donate to my Swing-a-thon for the Alzheimer’s Society visit

www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Wayne-Devlin. I will also have a collection box on the day.

I’ve got a lot of songs to get through and I think I can quite confidently sing for around five hours without repeating any.

My Swing-a-thon starts at 6pm on Friday, March 5 and finishes at 6pm the following day. It will be held at Mulino restaurant on Primrose Avenue in Urmston.

So if you are having your daily walk please do give me a wave and have a listen as you pass by! I’d love your support. Please make sure you abide by all the social distancing rules and keep everyone safe.