The charity has joined forces with the Wordsworth Trust to celebrate 200 years of Wordsworth’s famous daffodils poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud” and is attempting to enter the Guinness Book of Records for the world’s largest reading aloud, in this case a poetry recital.

The record attempt - “Words Worth Reading” - will take place in schools across the UK at 9.15am on Friday, March 19 and we hope that at least 150,000 schoolchildren will take part. This figure is significant because it represents the number of lives claimed by cancer in the UK each year. If you think your school is up for the challenge then visit www.mariecurie.org.ukdaffodil for more information.

“Words Worth Reading” is a unique partnership between Marie Curie Cancer Care and the Wordsworth Trust, a charity that provides a living memorial to the life and work of one of England’s greatest poets, and actively promotes the public enjoyment of poetry.

March is also the month of Marie Curie Cancer Care’s Daffodil Campaign, supported by Yellow Pages. The campaign aims to raise funds to provide high quality nursing, totally free, to give terminally ill people the choice of dying at home supported by their families. I urge you to take part.

Andrew Motion

Poet laureate