Charlie tops 230k

Tuesday February 9, 2010

Fulham's pint-sized superstar Charlie Simpson has now pedalled his way to more than £230,000 for the Haiti appeal.

Seven-year-old Charlie set in motion a torrent of online donations after cycling five miles around South Park on January 24.

Proud mum Leonora Simpson, 35, said Charlie was struggling to get his head around the mammoth fundraising total - which stood at £230,212.97 at the last count and will go to the Unicef Haiti Appeal.

"The only way we could explain it to him really was in terms of his pocket money," she said.

"So in the early days we told him it was like 70 years of pocket money, but now we've worked out it's up to 6,000 years' worth!"

Leonora said Charlie had first hatched the idea of riding his bike to raise money after being upset by the television images of suffering and devastation in Haiti.

"He was watching the coverage on TV and sat on my lap and burst into tears," she said. "Then we had a chat about how he could do something to help."

Charlie, who lives just off New Kings Road with mum Leonora, dad Daniel and six-year-old sister Alice, started out with a very modest fundraising target of £10 - but the campaign rapidly gained momentum beyond his wildest expectations.

Leonora and Daniel helped their son set up a donation page on the Just Giving website and sent links to family and friends - but Charlie's pedal-power soon sparked national media interest.

"I think a lot of people wanted to give to Haiti but they did not know how to do it until they saw Charlie's email," she said.

"Then we started getting press coverage, and people from all over the world put it on their blogs."

Charlie, who goes to school in Fulham, has become a bit of a star in the playground over the past few weeks and was invited to 10 Downing Street where the Prime Minister's wife Sarah Brown congratulated him on his achievement.

The schoolboy also met Simon Cowell in his luxury London offices, where the music mogul added a cool £5,000 to Charlie's grand total.

Visit Charlie's fundraising page at www.justgiving.com/charliesimpson-haiti