The £900,000 cheques really ARE in the post as the extraordinary amount 17,000 of you posted as part of the Mail Force drive for PPE charity boost the fight against the coronavirus
- 37,000 Daily Mail readers have donated almost £1.6m to supply protective kit
- Total is expected to surge past £2m with 4,000 of your letters still to open
- Almost 16,000 of you have pledged £670,000 using the online fundraising page
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
An incredible 37,000 Daily Mail readers have now donated almost £1.6million to supply protective kit for frontline NHS and care staff.
The astonishing total is expected to surge past the £2million mark because there are still another 4,000 of your letters to be opened.
More volunteers have been drafted in to keep up with your big-hearted response to Mail Force, which is leading a campaign to make sure health workers have enough personal protection equipment on the coronavirus frontline.
The charity – created by the Daily Mail and its partners – has so far opened 17,000 envelopes, each containing generous donations.
Mail Force PPE: Daily Mail reporter Amelia Clarke finds another touching letter from a reader, one of tens of thousands who’ve posted donations to the Mail Force PPE appeal
The amount in cheques alone reached £900,000 last night – and thousands more envelopes keep arriving. In addition, almost 16,000 of you have pledged £670,000 using the online fundraising page, bringing the overall total from readers to almost £1.6million. These astonishing offerings, combined with those from philanthropists and corporate partners, have helped the Mail Force fund swell to £6.3million in total.
Tetra Pak tycoon Hans Rausing and his wife Julia donated £1million, while Sir Brian Souter, the founder of transport firm Stagecoach, has pledged to match donations from our readers up to £500,000.
Many cheques came with heartfelt letters of support expressing gratitude to the NHS and care workers. In one moving letter, Eileen Johnson from North Yorkshire wrote: ‘At the age of 88, I have been cared for many times, and it has been with kindness and love from all in hospital, or in the surgeries and my home.
‘My late dear husband also received this as do my three children, six grandchildren and five great grandchildren… I have much to thank the NHS for.’
Pictured here (left to right are Olivia Cole (18), Charlotte Bateman (18) and Sophie Bateman, who have all volunteered to work at ‘locked-down’ Croft House Care home in Eastburn, Keighley. They are holding some of the Mail Force’s masks
Her sentiments were echoed by Tony Pickersgill, from Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, who wrote: ‘What a brilliant initiative by a brilliant newspaper.
‘I am an 80-year-old widowed pensioner and the Mail always brightens my day.
‘The NHS has looked after me and my wife in the past and it’s good to give something back in this time of crisis. Keep up the good work and stay safe.’
The campaign has been backed by leading figures in British industry, as well as household names from the entertainment world.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and two former prime ministers, Sir John Major and Gordon Brown, have offered their support, along with celebrity knights of the realm Cliff Richard and Michael Caine.
Dame Vera Lynn paid a heartfelt tribute to Mail Force’s ‘wonderful achievement’ ahead of the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. Mail Force’s campaign began in earnest a week ago, when it flew an airliner packed with 20 tons of personal protective equipment from Shanghai to London.
The £1million cargo filled the hold and cabin of the chartered airliner. The 50,000 medical coveralls and 100,000 masks quickly cleared customs and went straight to an NHS distribution centre in the Midlands. The first consignments were despatched to a hospital, an ambulance trust, care homes and a hospice. Thanks to the speed and scale of public support for Mail Force, plans are under way to bring further airlifts of PPE to Britain.