Judi Dench and Michael Palin back The Mail’s Ukraine Refugee Appeal as it raises over £2m
TWO MILLION thank yous! Readers send Ukraine refugee appeal total past milestone appeal as Judi Dench and Michael Palin give their support and – one British firm gives £250,000
The Mail’s fund for Ukrainian refugees reached the £2million mark yesterday Glasgow-based Peak Scientific pledged an astonishing £250,000 to the causeDame Judi Dench and Sir Michael Palin became latest big names to back appeal
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The Mail’s fund for refugees surged past £2million yesterday – thanks in no small part to a £250,000 donation from a British firm with business partners trapped in Ukraine.
Peak Scientific pledged the astonishing sum as Dame Judi Dench and Sir Michael Palin became the latest big names to back our appeal.
The firm’s chief executive Jonathan Golby said: ‘This is a huge crisis and the people of Ukraine are in a desperate situation.’
His Glasgow-based company, which makes gas generators for laboratories, has 650 staff in 24 offices around the world.
‘We have close business partners in Ukraine, and our hearts go out to them and all the Ukrainian people under siege,’ Mr Golby added.
‘We do stay in touch with our friends there and of course their businesses have all shut down as everyone just waits with bated breath to see how the next week plays out.
‘Whatever we have going on in our day-to-day business here is irrelevant when you think of the families being separated, newborn babies in underground bunkers rather than being in specialist hospital units, and untold suffering.
‘We are a family-owned business, and we just hope this £250,000 will help in some way.’
Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi, who has also offered a generous donation, urged others to back the Mail Newspapers crusade to help families caught in the horror.
A woman carries her child as she arrives at the Medyka border crossing after fleeing from the Ukraine on Monday
Oscar-winning Dame Judy Dench, pictured at the Chelsea Flower Show, has backed the campaign
She said yesterday: ‘If, like me, you are appalled by the desperate plight of the people of Ukraine, I urge you to get behind this worthwhile appeal and donate as much or as little as you can.’
Immediate help is needed as hundreds of thousands of innocents flee the Kremlin’s brutal onslaught.
Aid agencies are mobilising to provide shelter, clothes and food to refugees flooding over the borders in freezing conditions with their children and just a handful of belongings.
This essential work costs money, and there is no time to waste – which is why the Mail launched its appeal within three days of Vladimir Putin’s assault on his neighbouring nation.
Monty Python star Palin said: ‘This war is outrageous. Please support the Daily Mail’s campaign and help the people of Ukraine any way you can.’
Children’s TV presenter Konnie Huq also urged people to help, saying: ‘This humanitarian crisis will devastate millions.
‘Four million people could be displaced, not to mention the death toll that comes with such conflict. Please help and support this Daily Mail campaign.’
Harrowing images from Ukraine have spurred record-breaking generosity, leading our appeal to become the fastest newspaper fundraiser in world history.
Since Sunday morning, readers of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline have sent in more than £1.25million.
At the request of Lord and Lady Rothermere, the Mail’s parent company DMGT has donated £500,000.
All this money will go to charities helping those most in need. In the town of Przemysl in Poland, near the main border crossing from Ukraine, exhausted refugees expressed their gratitude to the Mail’s readers.
Viktoriya Luchka, a 29-year-old mother-of-one who fled the city of Lviv on Monday, said: ‘I am touched and proud that so many of your readers have mobilised so quickly to help Ukraine.
‘When it’s a public effort, I feel moved with the support people are providing us with. Both the British and Ukrainians stand for common values, for freedom, for human dignity.’
She said her husband, brother and father have all stayed behind in her homeland, where men of fighting age have been ordered to take up arms.
One of Poland’s top humanitarian organisations also hailed the Mail’s readers yesterday.
Sir Michael Palin (pictured at the National Television Awards 2020 at The O2 Arena) has given his backing to the campaign. He described the war as ‘outrageous’
People fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine arrive at a border crossing in Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia, on Tuesday
A woman pictured with a young child as they arrive at a temporary camp in Przemysl, Poland, on Tuesday
Rafal Sakowski, chief rescue coordinator for the Polish Red Cross, said: ‘We need to help the Ukrainian people in Poland with food and trying to find a place for them to stay.
The money from the Mail will be very useful to help those fleeing Ukraine, so thank you very much. The British people are very generous.’
Of course, the cash is not just coming from individuals – and yesterday’s pledge from Peak Scientific paves the way for other businesses to step forward.
The offer of £250,000 follows the same company’s generous donation to the Mail’s lockdown campaign to fund laptops for schoolchildren.
One of the firm’s gas generators even played a small but important role in the discovery of a Covid jab.
Its machines can produce nitrogen gas – literally out of the air – saving the need for compressed gas bottles.
The nitrogen is then used in mass spectrometers, the devices used to calculate the exact molecular weight of a sample.
One of Peak Scientific’s gadgets was duly used by Pfizer’s partner BioNTech during the creation of its coronavirus vaccine.
