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First iPhone 5 sold to raise money for charity

Fundraising | Kirsty Weakley | 21 Sep 2012

Apple’s iPhone 5 went on sale this morning – but some of the first people to get their hands on one were not Apple fans but people raising money for charity.

Ryan Williams and Peter King have raised more than £1,400 for Cancer Research UK by queuing at the Covent Garden Apple store in London to make the store's first purchase of the device.

They started an eBay auction last week, which closed ten minutes before the shop opened with a winning bid of £1,070. The pair also set up a JustGiving fundraising page which has so far raised £367 from 22 donations.

The cost of the handset (£529) was covered by 4 Networking, a social business network which Williams and King belong to.

Williams told civilsociety.co.uk that he had done PR stunts like this before for charity and that: “We wanted to boycott it (the launch of the iPhone 5) a bit by buying one for charity.”

They chose to raise money for CRUK because: “It is a charity close to both our hearts.”

Winning bidder, Stephen Mount (pictured left with Willaims and King), a freelance Drupal developer said: “It was great to support two young entrepreneurs – true young entrepreneurs are few and far between and they did something not very desirable just to help a charity.”

He added: “I believe we are making some great advances with cancer cures and preventions – I know my donation is going to be spent well.”

Regent Street store

Over at the Regent Street Apple store Richard Wheatcroft and George Horne claimed first spot in the queue hoping to raise money to set up a bakery as a social enterprise that will support vulnerable women.

The project needs £20,000 to get started and Wheatcroft decided to queue after hearing about previous iPhone launches where people reportedly paid others up to £15,000 to stand at the front of the queue on their behalf.

"It was also an opportunity for me to talk about something that really matters in the media,” he added.

This morning he told civilsociety.co.uk that: “The offers we received were less than we had expected so we decided to keep both places in the queue and buy four iPhone 5s to auction on eBay.”

Click on the images below to see Mount picking up his iPhone and the fundraisers queuing last night.

Images

Directory: Cancer Research UK