Evening Standard readers help raise more than £68k in 12 hours for hungry children across the capital

An incredible £68,390 has been raised to help hungry children across the capital after calls flooded in for our 12-hour telethon.

Readers who donated spoke to the likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Frank Lampard and Daisy Lowe as the stars manned the phoned for this year’s Christmas appeal.

Since 8am this morning they joined staff from the Evening Standard, Independent and London Live in support of the Help A Hungry Child Christmas Appeal, which is raising money for The Felix Project.

And thanks to the generosity of readers who have been calling in all day we smashed our £60,000 target by more than £8,000.

The first special guest this morning was American actor Hamm, best known as Don Draper in the hit TV series Mad Men.

Hamm was followed by actress Charlotte Hope, known for her roles in Game Of Thrones and actor David Morrissey, star of The Walking Dead.

Later volunteers were joined by former England footballer Lampard, model Lowe and fashion designer Henry Holland, plus columnists such as Emily Sheffield, Matthew D’Ancona, Rob ‘Judge’ Rinder and Sean O’Grady.

The Felix Project’s vans collect surplus food from retailers and deliver it to frontline charities. For the Help A Hungry Child appeal they are focusing on primary schools, after figures found one in 10 parents worry about their children getting enough food.

Katie Barraclough from the Felix Project said: “We are so grateful to have the support of so many people who want to make this campaign a success.

"This is not a problem that will go away over night but we are doing something that will make a difference in the day to day lives of people who are struggling.”