Our Winter Survival Appeal smashes the £2million barrier with £500,000 from Julia and Hans Rausing

Benedict Cumberbatch and Anne-Marie Duff hail Christmas campaign to help the most vulnerable in the capital

The Evening Standard’s Christmas campaign on Monday smashed through the £2 million mark, thanks to a £500,000 donation from philanthropists Julia and Hans Rausing.

It came as film stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Anne-Marie Duff hailed our Winter Survival Appeal in partnership with Comic Relief for getting funds to “amazing projects” that are helping thousands who are being pushed beyond breaking point.

Julia and Hans Rausing said: “The Evening Standard’s appeal with Comic Relief is a special cause for families in crisis.

Evening Standard

This vitally important appeal provides the chance for us all to join together to help Londoners who are in need. We are proud to support the Winter Survival Appeal as we did your On the Breadline campaign last year.”

Hans and Julia Rausing

This is the fifth consecutive year that the couple have announced significant Christmas donations to causes supporting the most vulnerable in London and across Britain, including, recently, a £1 million donation to the London Air Ambulance Charity and £8.7 million to hospices across the country.

Cumberbatch said: “I know this campaign will fund amazing projects that get help to people who need it most. This appeal will get support to families who are struggling to stay afloat and need urgent help with the essentials for their children. If you are able to support, you will be making such a difference.”

London-born Duff said: “As well as supporting families with having enough food and baby essentials, this appeal will also help organisations provide vulnerable people with someone to talk to — and somewhere safe and warm to find refuge.”

Evening Standard

Other large donors include Sainsbury’s and Comic Relief, who have each donated £500,000, the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund which donated £250,000, and a £250,000 expected pledge from gaming event organisers, Jingle Jam.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in