News site campaign leads to hospice funding boost

Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised £27 million for children's hospices - following a pioneering campaign by Sun Online.

In November 2005 the online version of the UK's most popular newspaper revealed how some children's hospices get just two per cent of their budget from state funds.

It also warned that vital Lottery cash for kids' hospices was due to run out this year.

More than 250,000 readers signed the site's petition calling for hospice funding to be increased and the 'Help Sick Kids crusade' gained heavy celebrity endorsement.

Model Nell McAndrew then delivered the signatures to number 10 Downing Street in March.

The online paper said Mr Blair's huge cash injection - announced this week - was "a stunning victory for our Help Sick Kids crusade".

The Sun Online's Dave Masters said: "The cash will come as a God-send to cash-strapped hospices across England.

"The campaign was something we started online, we had not done a big campaign online before.

"It seemed natural for us to take it on because it was such a worthy cause. We have got the perfect platform for feedback, people got instant access and could sign the petition."

The print edition picked up the campaign after it was launched last year and augmented what was being done online - a first for the paper.

Mr Masters added: "With online you can do things straight away that you can't do with a paper.

"We have been able to update on the day. People then follow the story running with us online."

Barbara Gelb, of the Association of Children's Hospices, praised the campaign.

"We are absolutely delighted," she said. This will make a real difference to thousands of children and their families."

• The Sun's parent group News International last week embarked on an expansion of its internet communities with a recruitment campaign for a number of editorial and management roles.

It is expected that the publishing giant will integrate its recently acquired social networking site MySpace with its newspaper titles to create new forums on zeitgeist topics and to seed user-generated content from readers.

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