Schoolboy Charlie Simpson raises (£120,000) for Haiti

Schoolboy Charlie Simpson raises £120,000 for Haiti

Seven-year-old's plan to raise £500 on sponsored bike ride snowballs on back of worldwide media coverage

(James Meikle and agencies guardian.co.uk, Monday 25 January 2010 10.41 GMT)

A seven-year-old boy who hoped to raise £500 for Haiti earthquake relief by cycling five miles around a local park has raised £120,000 in donations and gift aid, with the total still rising.

Charlie Simpson's efforts have touched the hearts of people around the world with visitors to his JustGiving website page piling on the pounds following his sponsored ride for the charity Unicef in Fulham, south London, yesterday.

Charlie launched his efforts with a simple message: "My name is Charlie Simpson, I want to do a sponsored bike ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives. I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti."
(Aux dernières nouvelles, on parle de 400.000 livres.)

Media coverage of Charlie's plan helped ensure donations flooded in. "Awesome effort", "You are an inspiration to us all" and "Finally made the donation I should have got round to giving days ago" were among typical messages of support to the JustGiving site, which helps raise money for charity.

Unicef is running its own appeal for the earthquake, independently of the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella organisation being used by several charities. Michael Newsome, its executive director, told the Daily Mirror: "There is something quite special about a child in the UK reaching out to the children of Haiti. It's quite fabulous."

Charlie said: "I just think it was quite sad when I saw the pictures on the TV."

His mother, Leonora said he had burst into tears but resolved to do something about the disaster. "What started off as a little cycle round the park with his dad has turned into something a lot bigger than that and we can't believe it."