Donations surge to MH17 victim's charity appeal

21 Jul 2014 News

Donations to a charity helping disadvantaged children in Nepal have increased following the death of one of its fundraisers who was a passenger on flight MH17.

Donations to a charity helping disadvantaged children in Nepal have increased following the death of one of its fundraisers who was a passenger on flight MH17.

Richard Mayne, a Leeds university student originally from Leicester, had set up a JustGiving page for the charity Kidasha previous to a trek he did in March to fundraise for it.

The page, which had an original target of £680, has now raised over £4,700 for the charity.

The student was on the MH17 flight to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam when it came down in Ukraine last Thursday.

Meanwhile, football fans have raised over £22,000 in memory of two Newcastle supporters who were also on flight MH17 when it crashed.

A Sunderland fan originally started an online donation page to raise £100 for a floral tribute to John Alder and Liam Sweeney. The donations snowballed and the fan who started the fundraising has said that the remaining money would be donated to two cancer charities; locally based Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and Marie Curie Cancer Care, which has a hospice in Newcastle.

The two fans were travelling to New Zealand to see Newcastle play in a pre-season tour when the Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down.