Kentish Gazette Shelter Campaign Prompts £10,000 Mystery Charity Donation

The Kentish Gazette’s Give Them Shelter campaign prompted a mystery benefactor to hand a £10,000 cheque to a homeless charity.

The donor arrived at the Catching Lives office carrying a clipping from the Gazette featuring a recent appeal and handed over a £10,000 cheque.    

The donation means the charity, which raises money for community night shelters to help people living rough in Canterbury during the winter, has enough money to pay for the shelters in church halls and similar venues for three months.

Community shelter co-ordinator Chris Kemble from Catching Lives said: “We had a call from someone who wanted to visit us with the intention of making a donation.

“When he arrived he was actually carrying a clipping from the Gazette which featured the recent appeal. When he told us he wanted to donate £10,000 our jaws dropped.”

The campaign, which last year raised £18,000 in just a month, is the brainchild of the KM Group-owned weekly newspaper’s chief reporter Gerry Warren and involves stories in the Gazette, its free sister paper the Canterbury Extra, mentions on its sister radio station kmfm, stories online as well as being talked about on social media.

Editor Leo Whitlock: “Together with our readers, I’m proud that we’ve been able to make a real difference. With the cold weather just around the corner, this donation could help to save lives and it shows how much good local newspapers do week in and week out.”