Two readers donate £35k to SafeCall appeal in first week

The SafeCall campaign has raised £35,000 among its donations thanks to two exceptionally generous readers who have anonymously contributed £25,000 and £10,000 respectively.

- HARRIETTE BOUCHER

With help from our readers, The Independent, alongside the charity Missing People, aims to raise the funds to launch a new, free call service that will provide children in crisis with confidential support, guidance and a route to safety. The donations come amid an extraordinary first week of calls, texts and high-profile support, which has seen the SafeCall campaign make a strong charge towards its overall target.

Sir David Beckham and Sir Ian Rankin are among the latest celebrities to back the campaign, which has set out to raise £165,000 to help the 70,000 children who go missing each year in the UK. Peter Boxell, whose son Lee Boxell went missing when he was 15, said: “When my son Lee went missing, our lives changed forever. Decades have passed, and we still don’t have the answers we need.