Celeb appeal raises £4m quake cash
Approximately £4 million was raised in a celebrity-led televised phone-in for the victims of the South East Asia earthquake, it has been revealed.
It takes the total figure raised by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to more than £9 million.
Stars from Liberty X, Big Brother housemate Makosi Musambasi and radio DJ Jamie Theakston joined 100 volunteers for the seven-hour event at the BT Tower in London on Thursday night.
It was shown live on evening news programmes and Channel 4's Richard And Judy.
Saira Khan, runner-up in the BBC2 Apprentice programme, helped man the phones and spoke of her own family's plight in Pakistani Kashmir. "My whole extended family live just where the earthquake struck and my mother had flown out to visit them just before it happened," said the reality TV star.
"I was terrified when I saw the pictures at the weekend and I couldn't make contact with her at all. The house she was in had collapsed but my nephew had managed to get them all out alive. It's so upsetting because the whole region is so special to me," she added.
Brendan Gormley, chief executive of the DEC, urged people to continue to donate.
Commenting on claims that the public had disaster fatigue, he said: "The tsunami was an exception and we can't compare the two. But this is the fourth major appeal we've had this year and it just shows how generous the British public are when it comes to giving money to these appeals."
Money raised will be shared between 13 charities which are working to help the two million people believed to have been left homeless by the earthquake.
The UN estimates at least 35,000 people have lost their lives in the disaster and has asked for £151 million in aid.
dailysnack
so great to see him to see him helping out too .