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October 7, 2004updated 22 Nov 2022 12:13pm

Sun appeal for Beslan children passes £1m mark

By Press Gazette

The Sun’s campaign following the Beslan massacre has become one of its most successful after passing the £1million-mark, writes Dominic Ponsford.

Help the Beslan Kids was editor Rebekah Wade’s idea and launched with a front-page story a month ago.

Associate editor Geoff Webster said: “It’s the biggest appeal I’ve been involved in and it has to be close to a record.

“We’ve already allocated something like £250,000 for emergency assistance, which has gone straight to the hospitals.”

He said the rest of the money was to be allocated by News International Staff in the coming months via reputable charities.

“We’ve been staggered by the response. We always knew Sun readers were very generous and they’ve obviously been touched by this terrible event.

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“I don’t think any of us could have imagined at the outset that we would have raised this amount of money and it’s still coming in.”

The appeal was kickstarted by Sun reporters, who raided their contacts books for backers.

Donations have been collected by the News International accounts department in Peterborough.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

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