Stephen Fry saves the children

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 26 Feb 2009

One of Britain’s best-loved wits has become an unwitting fundraiser, as Stephen Fry’s prolific Twitter page prompts an explosion of donations to the father of a sick child.

James Morley-Smith, the father of a toddler suffering from eye cancer, contacted Fry (pictured) – whose Twitter profile describes him as a “dancer, courtier, superheavyweight boxer, neo-plasticist and rapper” – to ask for support in raising money for the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust.

As the neo-plasticist had grown up in the same street as Morley-Smith, he was more than happy to oblige and tweeted about the dad’s noble fundraising efforts.

While the tweet about the sick child was just one of more than 1,000 tweets tweeted by the prolific tweeter, Fry’s followers responded to the appeal with such vigour that Morley-Smith was soon prompted to double his fundraising target from £2,000 to £4,000 on JustGiving.

Earlier this week Fry’s Twitter following topped 100,000, perhaps giving Morley-Smith – who is running the London Marathon to raise money for the Trust – more confidence in his ability to reach his recently-further increased target of £10,000.

In the time it took to write this article, Fry’s following on Twitter increased by more than 150, suggesting that in the future anyone wishing to raise money might do well to contact the superheavyweight boxer for a mention.

Read Celina Ribeiro’s blog about Twitter: Lies, banality and Twitter

Who's Who: Celina Ribeiro

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