Telegraph Christmas charity appeal begins

With your support, our Christmas charity appeal that launches today will transform the lives of many

The annual Telegraph Christmas charity appeal launches today. The chosen charities that will be deserving recipients of all readers’ donations are CARE International UK, Horatio’s Garden and Rethink Mental Illness. Over the next two months, we will report on the charities’ work, tell the stories of people they have helped and describe what they hope to achieve.

Nothing expresses better the bond between the Telegraph and its readers than our annual Christmas charity appeal. Every year we select three charities that we believe will be deserving recipients of your donations, large or small, and every year you respond with instinctive generosity.

No matter what the economic climate, the impulse to give to others at Christmas runs deep, and the sums we have raised together – more than £23 million over the past two and a half decades – have been remarkable and have had a truly transformative effect on the lives of those in need.

In selecting this year’s charities – CARE International UK, Horatio’s Garden and Rethink Mental Illness, whose work is described below – we have, as always, looked for organisations with proven abilities and which, with additional funding, will be able to develop their work to assist more people. Each, as you will read, is involved in projects that will benefit immediately from your support.

Over the next two months, we will report on the charities’ work, tell the stories of people they have helped and describe what they hope to achieve in the coming years.

Last year, our readers gave more than £700,000 to our causes, once Gift Aid was reclaimed, and all three charities were profoundly grateful for the money raised and for the chance to explain their work in detail to a large readership.

The Abbeyfield Society, set up to tackle loneliness and isolation among older people, is still benefiting from readers’ generosity. The money raised during the appeal has ensured that the charity will be able to run its annual Coping at Christmas campaign this year, offering companionship, free meals, entertainment and overnight stays to older people who would otherwise be alone. This year Abbeyfield can host even greater numbers and offer further opportunities for shared meals and companionship throughout the year at its homes.

The Abbeyfield Society marks its 60th anniversary in 2016, and remains committed to assisting as many vulnerable older people as it can. “I want to thank all the Telegraph readers for their generous support,” says Anna Boyes, its director of marketing.

Being chosen for the 2014 appeal helped Medical Detection Dogs – the charity that trains dogs to recognise the smell of human disease and raise the alarm before symptoms are felt – to achieve great things this year. Donations enabled it to train and place another 15 medical alert assistance dogs with people with life-threatening conditions, bringing the total since the charity began in 2008 to 64, and it plans to place another 18 assistance dogs in 2016.

The charity also achieved NHS ethical approval to proceed with a study into dogs’ ability to detect prostate, bladder and kidney cancers in humans, underlining the confidence in its work felt by the medical establishment.

When last year’s appeal was launched, the Ebola virus was rampant in west Africa and had already claimed many lives. The disease persists in Guinea, but Liberia and Sierra Leone have now been declared Ebola-free, and the funds raised for the Masanga

Mentor Ebola Initiative (MMEI) have been a key part of the response.

Its methods have proved revolutionary: the MMEI has developed technology to enable peerto-peer learning in local dialects, which is constantly updated to educate communities about infection control, and money raised by

Telegraph readers has allowed the charity to develop, in collaboration with a team from Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, an interactive training system for health-care workers known as Ebuddi, which has been shortlisted for the European Health Innovation Award. The MMEI hopes its pioneering work will not only leave a real legacy in west Africa, but will improve outbreak response and the resilience of health systems worldwide.

Our charity phone-in day this year will be Sunday December 6, when you can call a member of the Telegraph staff and make a credit or debit card donation – last year we raised some £80,000 on the phone-in day alone, once Gift Aid was reclaimed.

Gift Aid is a simple means by which to increase your donation. If you are a UK taxpayer and you tick the box on the coupon below, our charities can reclaim 25p for each £1 that you give.

No matter what the economic climate, the impulse to give at Christmas runs deep