BOURNEMOUTH, England, January 9 /PRNewswire/ --     Findings from a poll released today report that, when asked
which celebrity single parents they could most identify with and why, UK
single parents voted Sir Bob Geldof as the most popular choice with 27 per
cent of the vote. In second place, with 15 per cent, was Sarah Ferguson,
closely followed by Gail Porter with 14 per cent and joint fourth, with 12
per cent respectively, was Mel B and, surprisingly, Jade Goody.

When asked 'why' they voted for the above celebrities, 31 per
cent said that it was due to 'triumph over adversity', 24 per cent felt it
was due to the 'celebrity having a good relationship with their children' and
20 per cent said that their choice was a 'good role model for other single
parents'.

58 per cent of those questioned felt that the government could
do more to support them financially. And 31 per cent felt that more could be
done by Mr Brown to assist single parents with better access to childcare.

The poll, which has been carried out by a free online resource
for single parents - http://www.singleparentfun.com - also indicates that,
over the last ten years, 83 per cent of single parents felt that the public's
perception of them has changed in a positive way.

When asked about dating, 40 per cent of single parents said
that they don't date and 56 per cent said that they wouldn't consider dating
as they knew that their children wouldn't be happy with it. Not surprisingly,
58 per cent of respondents said that their longest relationship had only
lasted between one week and six months.

Interestingly, 58 per cent of those polled said that their
experience of being a single parent would not put them off having children
with a partner in the future.

93 per cent felt that holiday firms do not cater enough for
single parent families.

58 per cent of single parents confirmed that expense is a
still a big issue when arranging holidays or day trips with their children.
Interestingly enough, 13 per cent said that they didn't go on holidays with
the children as they found it too lonely and 14 per cent said that any kind
of trip with the children was just too stressful to do alone.

When asked how much time they had to themselves each week some
interesting statistics came out. 22 per cent of those polled said they got
one to two hours per week with only 15 per cent getting a day to themselves.

Singleparentfun.com founder and single dad Gary Spicer said
"We were surprised to find out just how little 'me time' single parents get
due to the lack of support structure available. A key statistic is that
holiday firms are not catering for single parent families well enough, maybe
this poll will go some way to highlighting the issues that we as single
parents have to both them and our government."